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. 



TREASURES 



THE PROSE WRITINGS 



JOHN MILTON. 



" Hath he not always treasures, always friends, — 
The good, great man?" 

Coleridge. 



J23k 




BOSTON: 

TICKNOR AND FIELDS. 

1866. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by 

TICKNOR AND FIELDS, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



University Press : Welch, Bigelow, & Co. 

Cambridge. 



/ -'? 



.n 



To 
JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER, 

THIS EDITION OF 

TREASURES FROM MILTON'S PROSE WRITINGS 

IS DEDICATED 

BY THE PUBLISHERS. 



PREFACE 




^^ HE Prose Writings of Milton, inspired 
by the stirring events amid which they 
were written, form his contribution to 
the literature of freedom. To them 
were given the matured powers of a mind en- 
riched by varied studies, and ripened by medita- 
tion. They form the labors of his life, grand in 
thought and expression, as the poetic recreations 
of his earlier and later years are sublime and 
beautiful. In them his opinions, character, mo- 
tives and conduct are portrayed with singular 
fidelity. 

It is the aim of this volume to present a se- 
lection from Milton's Prose Writings, comprising 
some of the author's best thoughts, and setting 
forth as clearly as possible Milton himself, show- 
ing impartially his merits and faults as a writer 



vi PREFACE. 

and as a man. It will not have been prepared 
in vain, if it shall serve to make more widely 
known the Treasures of truth and beauty in 
these Prose Writings, and the true greatness 
of soul in their much abused author. And 
may the principles of civil and religious free- 
dom, here so eloquently defended, triumph every- 
where. 

FAYETTE HURD. 

July 12, 1865. 




CONTE NTS. 



— *— 

Page 

Feom the Treatise of Reformation in England . . 1 

From the Treatise of Prelatical Episcopacy . . 25 

From the Reason of Church Government urged against 

Prelaty 28 

From Animadversions upon the Remonstrant's Defence 

against Smectymnuus 63 

From an Apology for Smectymnuus .... 77 

From the Tractate on Education 100 

From Areopagitica 107 

Fro m the Doctrine and Discd?line of Divorce . . 132 

From Tetrachordon 161 

From the Tenure of Kings and Magistrates . . 170 

From Observations on the Articles of Peace, &o. . 189 
From Eikonoklastes . .. . . . . . .193 

From a Defence of the People of England . . 255 

From the Second Defence of the People of England 296 
From a Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical 

Causes 355 

From Considerations touching the Likeliest Means 

to remove Hirelings out of the Church . . 362 
From the Ready and Easy Way to establish a Free 

Commonwealth 376 



Tiii CONTENTS. 

From the History of Britain 389 

From the Treatise of True Religion, Heresy, Schism, 

Toleration 401 

From the Familiar Letters 406 

From the Letters of State 417 

From the Treatise on Christian Doctrine . . 430 



A List of Milton's Prose Works 467 

Index 473 




FROM THE TREATISE 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 




■MIDST those deep and retired thoughts, 
which, with every man Christianly in- 
structed, ought to be most frequent of 
God, and of his miraculous ways and 
works amongst men, and of our religion and 
works, to be performed to him ; after the story 
of our Saviour Christ, suffering to the lowest bent 
of weakness in the flesh, and presently triumph- 
ing to the highest pitch of glory in the spirit, 
which drew up his body also ; till we in both be 
united to him in the revelation of his kingdom, I 
do not know of anything more worthy to take up 
the whole passion of pity on the one side, and joy 
on the other, than to consider first the foul and 
sudden corruption, and then, after many a tedious 
age, the long-deferred, but much more wonderful 
and happy reformation of the Church in these 
latter days. Sad it is to think how that doctrine 
of the Gospel, planted by teachers divinely in- 
spired, and by them winnowed and sifted from the 



2 FROM THE TREATISE 

chaff of overdated ceremonies, and refined to such 
a spiritual height and temper of purity, and knowl- 
edge of the Creator, that the body, with all the 
circumstances of time and place, were purified by 
the affections of the regenerate soul, and nothing 
left impure but sin ; faith needing not the weak 
and fallible office of the senses, to be either the 
ushers or interpreters of heavenly mysteries, save 
where our Lord himself in his sacraments or- 
dained ; that such a doctrine should, through the 
grossness and blindness of her professors, and the 
fraud of deceivable traditions, drag so downwards, 
as to backslide one way into the Jewish beggary 
of old cast rudiments, and stumble forward another 
way into the new- vomited paganism of sensual 
idolatry, attributing purity or impurity to things 
indifferent, that they might bring the inward acts 
of the spirit to the outward and customary eye- 
service of the body, as if they could make God 
earthly and fleshly, because they could not make 
themselves heavenly and spiritual; they began to 
draw down all the divine intercourse betwixt God 
and the soul, yea, the very shape of God himself, 
into an exterior and bodily form, urgently pretend- 
ing a necessity and obligement of joining the body 
in a formal reverence and worship circumscribed ; 
they hallowed it, they fumed up, they sprinkled it, 
they bedecked it, not in robes of pure innocency, 
but of pure linen, with other deformed and fan- 
tastic dresses, in palls and mitres, gold, and gew- 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 3 

gaws fetched from Aaron's old wardrobe, or the 
flamins vestry : then was the priest set to con his 
motions and his postures, his liturgies and his lur- 
ries, till the soul, by this means of overbodying 
herself, given up justly to fleshly delights, bated 
her wing apace downward : and finding the ease 
she had from her visible and sensuous colleague, 
the body, in performance of religious duties, her 
pinions now broken, and flagging, shifted off from 
herself the labor of high-soaring any more, forgot 
her heavenly flight, and left the dull and droiling 
carcass to plod on in the old road, and drudging 
trade of outward conformity. And here, out of 
question, from her perverse conceiting of God and 
holy things, she had fallen to believe no God at 
all, had not custom and the worm of conscience 
nipped her incredulity : hence to all the duties of 
evangelical grace, instead of the adoptive and 
cheerful boldness which our new alliance with 
God requires, came servile and thrallike fear : for 
in very deed, the superstitious man, by his good- 
will, is an atheist; but being scared from thence 
by the pangs and gripes of a boiling conscience, 
all in a pudder shuffles up to himself such a God 
and such a worship as is most agreeable to remedy 
his fear ; which fear of his, as also is his hope, 
fixed only upon the flesh, renders likewise the 
whole faculty of his apprehension carnal ; and all 
the inward acts of worship, issuing from the native 
strength of the soul, run out lavishly to the upper 



4 FROM THE TREATISE 

skin, and there harden into a crust of formality. 
Hence men came to scan the Scriptures by the let- 
ter, and in the covenant of our redemption, mag- 
nified the external signs more than the quickening 
power of the Spirit ; and yet, looking on them 
through their own guiltiness with a servile fear, 
and finding as little comfort, or rather terror, from- 
them again, they knew not how to hide their 
slavish approach to God's behests, by them not 
understood, nor worthily received, but by cloak- 
ing their servile crouching to all religious pre- 
sentments, sometimes lawful, sometimes idola- 
trous, under the name of humility, and terming 
the piebald frippery and ostentation of ceremonies 
decency. 

But, to dwell no longer in characterizing the 
depravities of the Church, and how they sprung, 
and how they took increase, when I recall to mind 
at last, after so many dark ages, wherein the huge 
overshadowing train of error had almost swept all 
the stars out of the firmament of the Church ; how 
the bright and blissful Reformation (by Divine 
power) struck through the black and settled night 
of ignorance and antichristian tyranny, methinks 
a sovereign and reviving joy must needs rush into 
the bosom of him that reads or hears ; and the 
sweet odor of the returning gospel imbathe his 
soul with the fragrancy of heaven. Then was the 
sacred Bible sought out of the dusty corners where 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 5 

profane falsehood and neglect had thrown it, the 
schools opened, divine and human learning raked 
out of the embers of forgotten tongues, the princes 
and cities trooping apace to the new erected ban- 
ner of salvation ; the martyrs, with the unresist- 
able might of weakness shaking the powers of 
darkness, and scorning the fiery rage of the old 
red dragon. 

He that, enabled with gifts from God, and the 
lawful and primitive choice of the Church assem- 
bled in convenient number, faithfully from that 
time forward feeds his parochial flock, has his co- 
equal and compresbyterial power to ordain minis- 
ters and deacons by public prayer, and vote of 
Christ's congregation in like sort as he himself was 
ordained, and is a true apostolic bishop. But when 
he steps up into the chair of pontifical pride, and 
changes a moderate and exemplary house for a 
misgoverned and haughty palace, spiritual dignity 
for carnal precedence, and secular high office and 
employment for the high negotiations of his heav- 
enly embassage, then he degrades, then he un- 
bishops himself ; he that makes him bishop, makes 
him no bishop. 

Thus then did the spirit of unity and meekness 
inspire and animate every joint and sinew of the 
mystical body : but now the gravest and worthiest 
minister, a true bishop of his fold, shall be reviled 



6 FROM THE TREATISE 

and ruffled by an insulting and only canon-wise 
prelate, as if he were some slight, paltry com- 
panion : and the people of God, redeemed and 
washed with Christ's blood, and dignified with so 
many glorious titles of saints and sons in the Gos- 
pel, are now no better reputed than impure ethnics 
and lay dogs; stones, and pillars, and crucifixes 
have now the honor and the alms due to Christ's 
living members ; the table of communion, now 
become a table of separation, stands like an ex- 
alted platform upon the brow of the quire, forti- 
fied with bulwark and barricado, to keep off the 
profane touch of the laics, whilst the obscene and 
surfeited priest scruples not to paw and mam- 
moc the sacramental bread, as familiarly as his 
tavern biscuit. And thus the people, vilified and 
rejected by them, give over the earnest study of 
virtue and godliness, as a thing of greater purity 
than they need, and the search of divine knowl- 
edge as a mystery too high for their capacities, and 
only for churchmen to meddle with; which is 
what the prelates desire, that when they have 
brought us back to popish blindness, we might 
commit to their dispose the whole managing of 
our salvation; for they think it was never fair 
world with them since that time. 



I am not of opinion to think the Church a vine 
in this respect, because, as they take it, she can- 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 7 

not subsist without clasping about the elm of 
worldly strength and felicity, as if the heavenly 
city could not support itself without the props and 
buttresses of secular authority. 



How should then the dim taper of this Emper- 
or's * age, that had such need of snuffing, extend 
any beam to our times, wherewith we might hope 
to be better lighted, than by those luminaries that 
God hath set up to shine to us far nearer hand ? 
And what reformation he wrought for his own 
time, it will not be amiss to consider. He ap- 
pointed certain times for fasts and feasts, built 
stately churches, gave large immunities to the 
clergy, great riches and promotions to bishops, 
gave and ministered occasion to bring in a deluge 
of ceremonies, thereby either to draw in the hea- 
then by a resemblance of their rites, or to set a 
gloss upon the simplicity and plainness of Chris- 
tianity ; which, to the gorgeous solemnities of 
paganism, and the sense of the world's children, 
seemed but a homely and yeomanly religion ; for 
the beauty of inward sanctity was not within their 
prospect. 

But it will be replied, The Scriptures are diffi- 
cult to be understood, and therefore require the 
explanation of the fathers. It' is true, there be 

* Constantine's. 



8 FROM THE TREATISE 

some books, and especially some places in these 
books, that remain clouded ; yet ever that which 
is most necessary to be known is most easy ; and 
that which is most difficult, so far expounds itself 
ever, as to tell us how little it imports our saving 
knowledge. Hence, to infer a general obscurity 
over all the text, is a mere suggestion of the devil 
to dissuade men from reading it, and casts an as- 
persion of dishonor both upon the mercy, truth, 
and wisdom of God. We count it no gentleness 
or fair dealing in a man of power amongst us, to 
require strict and punctual obedience, and yet 
give out all his commands ambiguous and ob- 
scure : we should think he had a plot upon us ; 
certainly such commands were no commands, but 
snares. The very essence of truth is plainness 
and brightness ; the darkness and crookedness is 
our own. The wisdom of God created under- 
standing, fit and proportionable to truth, the ob- 
ject and end of it, as the eye to the thing visible. 
If our understanding have a film of ignorance 
over it, or be blear with gazing on other false glis- 
terings, what is that to truth ? If we will but 
purge with sovereign eye-salve that intellectual 
ray which God hath planted in us, then we would 
believe the Scriptures protesting their own plain- 
ness and perspicuity, calling to them to be in- 
structed, not only the wise and learned, but the 
simple, the poor, the babes, foretelling an extraor- 
dinary effusion of God's Spirit upon every age 









OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 9 

and sex, attributing to all men, and requiring from 
them the ability of searching, trying, examining all 
things, and by the Spirit discerning that which is 
good ; and as the Scriptures themselves pronounce 
their own plainness, so do the fathers testify of 

them 

But let the Scriptures be hard ; are they more 
hard, more crabbed, more abstruse, than the 
fathers? He that cannot understand the sober, 
plain, and unaffected style of the Scriptures, will 
be ten times more puzzled with the knotty Afri- 
canisms, the pampered metaphors, the intricate 
and involved sentences of the fathers, besides the 
fantastic and declamatory flashes, the gross-jin- 
gling periods, which cannot but disturb and come 
thwart a settled devotion, worse than the din of 
bells and rattles. 



It is a work good and prudent to be able to 
guide one man ; of larger extended virtue to 
order well one house ; but to govern a nation 
piously and justly, which only is to say happily, 
is for a spirit of the greatest size, and divinest 
mettle. And certainly of no less a mind, nor of 
less excellence in another way, were they who, by 
writing, laid the solid and true foundations of this 
science, which being of greatest importance to the 
life of man, yet there is no art that hath been 
more cankered in her principles, more soiled and 
slubbered with aphorisming pedantry than the art 



10 FROM THE TREATISE 

of policy; and that most, where a man would 
think should least be, in Christian commonwealths. 
They teach not, that to govern well, is to train up 
a nation in true wisdom and virtue, and that which 
springs from thence, magnanimity (take heed of 
that), and that which is our beginning, regenera- 
tion, and happiest end, likeness to God, which in 
one word we call godliness ; and that this is the 
true flourishing of a land, other things follow as 
the shadow does the substance : to teach thus were 
mere pulpitry to them. This is the masterpiece 
of a modern politician, how to qualify and mould 
the sufferance and subjection of the people to the 
length of that foot that is to tread on their necks ; 
how rapine may serve itself with the fair and hon- 
orable pretences of public good; how the puny 
law may be brought under the wardship and con- 
trol of lust and will ; in which attempt, if they fall 
short, then must a superficial color of reputation, 
by all means, direct or indirect, be gotten to wash 
over the unsightly bruise of honor. To make 
men governable in this manner, their precepts 
mainly tend to break a national spirit and courage, 
by countenancing open riot, luxury, and igno- 
rance, till, having thus disfigured and made men 
beneath men, as Juno in the fable of Io, they 
deliver up the poor transformed heifer of the com- 
monwealth to be stung and vexed with the breeze 
and goad of oppression, under the custody of some 
Argus with a hundred eyes of jealousy. To be 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 11 

plainer, sir, how to solder, how to stop a leak, how 
to keep up the floating carcass of a crazy and dis- 
eased monarchy or state, betwixt wind and water, 
swimming still upon her own dead lees, that now 
is the deep design of a politician. 



A commonwealth ought to be but as one huge 
Christian personage, one mighty growth and stat- 
ure of an honest man, as big and compact in virtue 
as in body ; for look what the grounds and causes 
are of single happiness to one man, the same ye 
shall find them to a whole state, as Aristotle, both 
in his Ethics and Politics, from the principles of 
reason, lays down : by consequence, therefore, that 
which is good and agreeable to monarchy will 
appear soonest to be so, by being good and agree- 
able to the true welfare of every Christian ; and 
that which can be justly proved hurtful and offen- 
sive to every true Christian will be evinjced to be 
alike hurtful to monarchy : for God forbid that we 
should separate and distinguish the end and good 
of a monarch from the end and good of the mon- 
archy, or of that from Christianity 

Seeing that the churchman's office is only to 
teach men the Christian faith, to exhort all, to 
encourage the good, to admonish the bad, pri- 
vately the less offender, publicly the scandalous and 
stubborn ; to censure and separate, from the com- 
munion of Christ's flock, the contagious and incor- 



12 FROM THE TREATISE 

rigible, to receive with joy and fatherly compas- 
sion the penitent: all this must be done, and 
more than this is beyond any church-authority. 
What is all this, either here or there, to the tem- 
poral regiment of weal public, whether it be pop- 
ular, princely, or monarchical? Where doth it 
entrench upon the temporal governor ? where does 
it come in his walk ? where doth it make inroad 
upon his jurisdiction ? Indeed, if the minister's 
part be rightly discharged, it renders him the 
people more conscionable, quiet, and easy, to be 
governed ; if otherwise, his life and doctrine will 
declare him. If, therefore, the constitution of the 
Church be already set down by divine prescript, 
as all sides confess, then can she not be a hand- 
maid to wait on civil commodities and respects ; 
and if the nature and limits of church-discipline 
be such as are either helpful to all political estates 
indifferently, or have no particular relation to any, 
then is there no necessity, nor indeed possibility, 
of linking the one with the other in a special con- 
formation 

Well knows every wise nation that their liberty 
consists in manly and honest labors, in sobriety 
and rigorous honor to the marriage-bed, which in 
both sexes should be bred up from chaste hopes to 
loyal enjoyments ; and when the people slacken, 
and fall to looseness and riot, then do they as 
much as if they laid down their necks for some 
wild tyrant to get up and ride. Thus learnt Cy- 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 13 

rus to tame the Lydians, whom by arms he could 
not whilst they kept themselves from luxury; with 
one easy proclamation to set up stews, dancing, 
feasting, and dicing, he made them soon his slaves. 
I know not what drift the prelates had, whose 
brokers they were to prepare, and supple us either 
for a foreign invasion or domestic oppression : but 
this I am sure, they took the ready way to despoil 
us both of manhood and grace at once, and that 
in the shamefullest and ungodliest manner, upon 
that day which God's law, and even our own rea- 
son, hath consecrated, that we might have one day 
at least of seven set apart wherein to examine and 
increase our knowledge of God, to meditate and 
commune of our faith, our hope, our eternal city 
in heaven, and to quicken withal the study and 
exercise of charity ; at such a time that men 
should be plucked from their soberest and saddest 
thoughts, and by bishops, the pretended fathers of 
the Church, instigated, by public edict, and with 
earnest endeavor pushed forward to gaming, jig- 
ging, wassailing, and mixed dancing, is a horror 
to think ! Thus did the reprobate hireling priest 
Balaam seek to subdue the Israelites to Moab, if 
not by force, then by this devilish policy, to draw 
them from the sanctuary of God to the luxurious 
and ribald feasts of Baal-peor. Thus have they 
trespassed not only against the monarchy of Eng- 
land, but of Heaven also, as others, I doubt not, 
can prosecute against them. 



14 FROM THE TREATISE 

The emulation that under the old law was in 
the king towards the priest is now so come about 
in the gospel, that all the danger is to be feared 
from the priest to the king. Whilst the priest's 
office in the law was set out with an exterior lus- 
tre of pomp and glory, kings were ambitious to 
be priests; now priests, not perceiving the heaven- 
ly brightness and inward splendor of their more 
glorious evangelic ministry, with as great ambition 
affect to be kings, as in all their courses is easy 
to be observed. Their eyes ever eminent upon 
worldly matters, their desires ever thirsting after 
worldly employments, instead of diligent and fer- 
vent study in the Bible, they covet to be expert 
in canons and decretals, which may enable them 
to judge and interpose in temporal causes, how- 
ever pretended ecclesiastical. Do they not hoard 
up pelf, seek to be potent in secular strength, in 
state affairs, in lands, lordships, and domains, to 
sway and carry all before them in high courts and 
privy-councils, to bring into their grasp the high 
and principal offices of the kingdom ? . . . . 

But ever blessed be He, and ever glorified, that 
from his high watch-tower in the heavens, discern- 
ing the crooked ways of perverse and cruel men, 
hath hitherto maimed and infatuated all their dam- 
nable inventions, and deluded their great wizards 
with a delusion fit for fools and children : had God 
been so minded, he could have sent a spirit of mu- 
tiny amongst us, as he did between Abimelech and 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 15 

the Sechemites, to have made our funerals, and 
slain heaps more in number than the miserable 
surviving remnant; but he, when we least de- 
served, sent out a gentle gale and message of 
peace from the wings of those his cherubims that 
fan his mercy-seat. Nor shall the wisdom, the 
moderation, the Christian piety, the constancy, of 
our nobility and commons of England, be ever 
forgotten, .whose calm and temperate connivance 
could sit still and smile out the stormy bluster of 
men more audacious and precipitant than of solid 
and deep reach, until their own fury had run it- 
self out of breath, assailing by rash and heady 
approaches the impregnable situation of our liber- 
ty and safety, that laughed such weak enginery to 
scorn, such poor drifts to make a national war of a 
surplice brabble, a tippet scuffle, and engage the 
untainted honor of English knighthood to unfurl 
the streaming red cross, or to rear the horrid 
standard of those fatal guly dragons, for so un- 
worthy a purpose as to force upon their fellow- 
subjects that which themselves are weary of, the 
skeleton of a mass-book. Nor must the patience, 
the fortitude, the firm obedience, of the nobles and 
people of Scotland, striving against manifold prov- 
ocations, nor must their sincere and moderate 
proceedings hitherto, be unremembered, to the 
shameful conviction of all their detractors. 

Go on both hand in hand, O nations, never to 
be disunited; be the praise and the heroic song 



16 FROM THE TREATISE 

of all posterity ; merit this, but seek only virtue, 
not to extend your limits, (for what needs to win 
a fading triumphant laurel out of the tears of 
wretched men ?) but to settle the pure worship 
of God in his Church, and justice in the state : 
then shall the hardest difficulties smooth out them- 
selves before ye ; envy shall sink to hell, craft and 
malice be confounded, whether it be homebred 
mischief or outlandish cunning: yea, other na- 
tions will then covet to serve ye, for lordship and 
victory are but the pages of justice and virtue. 
Commit securely to true wisdom the vanquishing 
and uncasing of craft and subtlety, which are but 
her two runagates : join your invincible might to 
do worthy and godlike deeds ; and then he that 
seeks to break your union, a cleaving curse be his 
inheritance to all generations. .... 

Thus then we see that our ecclesiastical and 
political choices may consent and sort as well 
together without any rupture in the state, as 
Christians and freeholders. But as for honor, 
that ought indeed to be different and distinct, as 
either office looks a several way; the minister 
whose calling and end is spiritual ought to be hon- 
ored as a father and physician to the soul (if he 
be found to be so), with a son-like and disciple-like 
reverence, which is indeed the dearest and most 
affectionate honor, most to be desired by a wise 
man, and such as will easily command a free and 
plentiful provision of outward necessaries, without 
his further care of this world. 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 17 

The magistrate, whose charge is to see to our 
persons and estates, is to be honored with a more 
elaborate and personal courtship, with large sala- 
ries and stipends, that he himself may abound in 
those things whereof his legal justice and watchful 
care give us the quiet enjoyment. And this dis- 
tinction of honor will bring forth a seemly and 
graceful uniformity over all the kingdom. 

Then shall the nobles possess all the dignities 
and offices of temporal honor to themselves, sole 
lords without the improper mixture of scholastic 
and pusillanimous upstarts; the Parliament shall 
void her upper house of the same annoyances; 
the common and civil laws shall be both set free, 
the former from the control, the other from the 
mere vassalage and copyhold of the clergy. 

And whereas temporal laws rather punish men 
when they have transgressed than form them to 
be such as should transgress seldomest, we may 
conceive great hopes, through the showers of di- 
vine benediction watering the unmolested and 
watchful pains of the ministry, that the whole in- 
heritance of God will grow up so straight and 
blameless, that the civil magistrate may with far 
less toil and difficulty, and far more ease and de- 
light, steer the tall and goodly vessel of the com- 
monwealth through all the gusts and tides of the 
world's mutability. 

We must not run, they say, into sudden ex- 
tremes. This is a fallacious rule, unless under- 



18 FROM THE TREATISE 

stood only of the actions of virtue about things 
indifferent : for if it be found that those two ex- 
tremes be vice and virtue, falsehood and truth, the 
greater extremity of virtue and superlative truth 
we run into, the more virtuous and the more wise 
we become ; and he that, flying from degenerate 
and traditional corruption, fears to shoot himself 
too far into the meeting embrace of a divinely 
warranted reformation, had better not have run 
at all 

Let us not dally with God when he offers us 
a full blessing, to take as much of it as we think 
will serve our ends, and turn him back the rest 
upon his hands, lest in his anger he snatch all 
from us again. .... 

But in the evangelical and reformed use of this 
sacred censure,* no such prostitution, no such Is- 
cariotical drifts, are to be doubted, as that spiritual 
doom and sentence should invade worldly posses- 
sion, which is the rightful lot and portion even of 
the wickedest men, as frankly bestowed upon them 
by the all-dispensing bounty as rain and sunshine. 
No, no, it seeks not to bereave or destroy the 
body; it seeks to save the soul by humbling the 
body, not by imprisonment, or pecuniary mulct, 
much less by stripes, or bonds, or disinheritance, 
but by fatherly admonishment and Christian re- 
buke, to cast it into godly sorrow, whose end is 
joy, and ingenuous bashfulness to sin : if that can- 

* Excommunication. 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 19 

not be wrought, then as a tender mother takes her 
child and holds it over the pit with scaring words, 
that it may learn to fear where danger is ; so doth 
excommunication as dearly and as freely, without 
money, use her wholesome and saving terrors: 
she is instant, she beseeches, by all the dear and 
sweet promises of salvation she entices and wooes ; 
by all the threatenings and thunders of the law, 
and rejected gospel, she charges and adjures : this 
is all her armory, her munition, her artillery ; 
then she awaits with long-sufferance, and yet ar- 
dent zeal. In brief, there is no act in all the 
errand of God's ministers to mankind wherein 
passes more lover-like contestation between Christ 
and the soul of a regenerate man lapsing, than be- 
fore, and in, and after the sentence of excommuni- 
cation. As for the fogging proctorage of money, 
with such an eye as struck Gehazi with leprosy 
and Simon Magus with a curse, so does she look, 
and so threaten her fiery whip against that bank- 
ing den of thieves that dare thus baffle, and buy 
and sell the awful and majestic wrinkles of her 
brow. He that is rightly and apostolically sped 
with her invisible arrow, if he can be at peace in 
his soul, and not smell within him the brimstone 
of hell, may have fair leave to tell all his bags 
over undiminished of the least farthing, may eat 
his dainties, drink his wine, use his delights, enjoy 
his lands and liberties, not the least skin raised, 
not the least hair misplaced, for all that excom- 



20 FROM THE TREATISE 

munication has done: much more may a king 
enjoy his rights and prerogatives undeflowered, 
untouched, and be as absolute and complete a 
king as all his royalties and revenues can make 
him 

O sir, I do now feel myself inwrapped on the 
sudden into those mazes and labyrinths of dread- 
ful and hideous thoughts, that which way to get 
out, or which way to end, I know not, unless I 
turn mine eyes, and with your help lift up my 
hands to that eternal and propitious throne, where 
nothing is readier than grace and refuge to the 
distresses of mortal suppliants: and it were a 
shame to leave these serious thoughts less piously 
than the heathen were wont to conclude their 
graver discourses. 

Thou, therefore, that sittest in light and glory 
unapproachable, Parent of angels and men ! next, 
thee I implore, Omnipotent King, Redeemer of 
that lost remnant, whose nature thou didst as- 
sume, ineffable and everlasting Love! and thou, 
the third subsistence of Divine infinitude, illumin- 
ing Spirit, the joy and solace of created things ! 
one Tripersonal Godhead ! look upon this thy poor 
and almost spent and expiring Church, leave her 
not thus a prey to these importunate wolves that 
wait and think long till they devour thy tender 
flock ; these wild boars that have broke into thy 
vineyard, and left the print of their polluting hoofs 
on the souls of thy servants. O, let them not 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 21 

bring about their damned designs, that stand now 
at the entrance of the bottomless pit, expecting 
the watchword to open and let out those dread- 
nil locusts and scorpions, to reinvolve us in that 
pitchy cloud of infernal darkness, where we shall 
never more see the sun of thy truth again, never 
hope for the cheerful dawn, never more hear the 
bird of morning sing ! Be moved with pity at the 
afflicted state of this our shaken monarchy, that 
now lies laboring under her throes and struggling 
against the grudges of more dreaded calamities. 

O thou, that, after the impetuous rage of five 
bloody inundations, and the succeeding sword of 
intestine war, soaking the land in her own gore, 
didst pity the sad and ceaseless revolution of our 
swift and thick-coming sorrows ; when we were 
quite breathless, of thy free grace didst motion 
peace and terms of covenant with us ; and, having 
first wellnigh freed us from Antichristian thraldom, 
didst build up this Britannic empire to a glorious 
and enviable height, with all her daughter-islands 
about her; stay us in this felicity, let not the 
obstinacy of our half-obedience and will-worship 
bring forth that viper of sedition, that for these 
fourscore years hath been breeding to eat through 
the entrails of our peace ; but let her cast her 
abortive spawn without the danger of this travail- 
ing and throbbing kingdom : that we may still re- 
member, in our solemn thanksgivings, how for us 
the Northern Ocean even to the frozen Thule was 



22 FROM THE TREATISE 

scattered with the proud shipwrecks of the Span- 
ish Armada, and the very maw of hell ransacked, 
and made to give up her concealed destruction, 
ere she could vent it in that horrible and damned 
blast. 

O, how much more glorious will those former 
deliverances appear, when we shall know them 
not only to have saved us from greatest miseries 
past, but to have reserved us for greatest hap- 
piness to come ! Hitherto thou hast but freed us, 
and that not fully, from the unjust and tyrannous 
claim of thy foes ; now unite us entirely, and 
appropriate us to thyself; tie us everlastingly in 
willing homage to the prerogative of thy eternal 
throne. 

And now we know, O thou our most certain 
hope and defence, that thine enemies have been 
consulting all the sorceries of the great whore, 
and have joined their plots with that sad intelli- 
gencing tyrant that mischiefs the world with his 
mines of Ophir, and lies thirsting to revenge his 
naval ruins that have larded our seas: but let 
them all take counsel together, and let it come 
to naught; let them decree, and do thou cancel 
it ; let them gather themselves, and be scattered ; 
let them embattle themselves, and be broken ; 
let them embattle, and be broken, for thou art 
with us. 

Then, amidst the hymns and hallelujahs of 
saints, some one may perhaps be heard offering 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 23 

at high strains in new and lofty measure to sing 
and celebrate thy divine mercies and marvellous 
judgments in this land throughout all ages ; 
whereby this great and warlike nation, instructed 
and inured to the fervent and continual practice 
of truth and righteousness, and casting far from 
her the rags of her whole vices, may press on 
hard to that high and happy emulation to be 
found the soberest, wisest, and most Christian peo- 
ple at that day when thou, the eternal and shortly 
expected King, shalt open the clouds to judge the 
several kingdoms of the world, and, distributing 
national honors and rewards to religious and just 
commonwealths, shalt put an end to all earthly 
tyrannies, proclaiming thy universal and mild 
monarchy through heaven and earth, where they 
undoubtedly, that by their labors, counsels, and 
prayers have been earnest for the common good 
of religion and their country, shall receive, above 
the inferior orders of the blessed, the regal addition 
of principalities, legions, and thrones into their 
glorious titles, and in supereminence of beatific 
vision, progressing the dateless and irrevoluble 
circle of eternity, shall clasp inseparable hands 
with, joy and bliss, in overmeasure forever. 

But they contrary, that by the impairing and 
diminution of the true faith, the distresses and 
servitude of their country, aspire to high dignity, 
rule, and promotion here, after a shameful end in 
this life (which God grant them) shall be thrown 



24 OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

down eternally into the darkest and deepest gulf 
of hell, where, under the despiteful control, the 
trample and spurn of all the other damned, that 
in the anguish of their torture shall have no other 
ease than to exercise a raving and bestial tyranny 
over them as their slaves and negroes, they shall 
remain in that plight forever, the basest, the low- 
ermost, the most dejected, most underfoot, and 
down-trodden vassals of perdition. 




FROM THE TREATISE 



OF PRELATICAL EPISCOPACY. 




F it be of divine constitution, to satisfy 
us fully in that, the Scripture only is 
able, it being the only book left us of 
divine authority, not in anything more 
divine than in the all-sufficiency it hath to fur- 
nish us, as with all other spiritual knowledge, so 
with this in particular, setting out to us a perfect 
man of God, accomplished to all the good works 

of his charge To verify that which St. Paul 

foretold of succeeding times, when men began 
to have itching ears, then, not contented with the 
plentiful and wholesome fountains of the Gospel, 
they began after their own lusts to heap to them- 
selves teachers, and as if the Divine Scripture want- 
ed a supplement, and were to be eked out, they 
cannot think any doubt resolved, and any doctrine 
confirmed, unless they run to that indigested heap 
and fry of authors which they call antiquity. 
Whatsoever time, or the heedless hand of blind 
chance, hath drawn down from of old to this pres- 



26 FROM THE TREATISE 

ent, in her huge drag-net, whether fish or sea- 
weed, shells or shrubs, unpicked, unchosen, those 
are the fathers 

How can they bring satisfaction from such an 
author, to whose every essence the reader must be 
fain to contribute his own understanding? Had 
God ever intended that we should have sought 
any part of useful instruction from Ignatius, doubt- 
less he would not have so ill provided for our 
knowledge as to send him to our hands in this 
broken and disjointed plight ; and if he intended 
no such thing, we do injuriously in thinking to 
taste better the pure evangelic manna, by season- 
ing our mouths with the tainted scraps and frag- 
ments of an unknown table, and searching among 
the verminous and polluted rags dropped over- 
worn from the toiling shoulders of time* with 
these deformedly to quilt and interlace the entire, 
the spotless, and undecaying robe of truth, the 
daughter not of time, but of Heaven, only bred 
up here below in Christian hearts, between two 
grave and holy nurses, the doctrine and discipline 
of the Gospel 

He that thinks it the part of a well-learned man 
to have read diligently the ancient stories of the 
Church, and to be no stranger in the volumes of 
the fathers, shall have all judicious men consent- 
ing with him; not hereby to control and new- 
fangle the Scripture, God forbid ! but to mark how 
corruption and apostasy crept in by degrees, and 



OF PRELATICAL EPISCOPACY. 27 

to gather up wherever we find the remaining 
sparks of original truth, wherewith to stop the 
mouths of our adversaries, and to bridle them 
with their own curb, who willingly pass by that 
which is orthodoxal in them, and studiously cull 
out that which is commentitious, and best for their 
turns, not weighing the fathers in the balance of 
Scripture, but Scripture in the balance of the 
fathers. If we, therefore, making first the Gospel 
our rule and oracle, shall take the good which we 
light on in the fathers, and set it to oppose the 
evil which other men seek from them, in this way 
of skirmish we shall easily master all superstition 
and false doctrine ; but if we turn this our discreet 
and wary usage of them into a blind devotion to- 
wards them, and whatsoever we find written by 
them, we both forsake our own grounds and rea- 
sons which led us at first to part from Rome, that 
is, to hold to the Scriptures against all antiquity ; 
we remove our cause into our adversaries' own 
court, and take up there those cast principles 
which will soon cause us to solder up with them 
again ; inasmuch as, believing antiquity for itself in 
any one point, we bring an engagement upon our- 
selves of assenting to all that it charges upon us. 




FROM THE 

REASON OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT 
URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 




N the publishing of human laws, which 
for the most part aim not beyond the 
good of civil society, to set them barely 
forth to the people without reason or 
preface, like a physical prescript, or only with 
threatenings, as it were a lordly command, in 
the judgment of Plato was thought to be done 
neither generously nor wisely. His advice was, 
seeing that persuasion certainly is a more win- 
ning and more manlike way to keep men in obe- 
dience than fear, that to such laws as were of 
principal moment, there should be used as an in- 
duction some well-tempered discourse, showing 
how good, how gainful, how happy it must needs 
be to live according to honesty and justice ; which 
being uttered with those native colors and graces 
of speech, as true eloquence, the daughter of vir- 
tue, can best bestow upon her mother's praises, 
would so incite, and in a manner charm, the mul- 



REASON OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 29 

titude into the love of that which is really good, 
as to embrace it ever after, not of custom and: 
awe, which most men do, but of choice and pur- 
pose, with true and constant delight. But this 
practice we may learn from a better and more 
ancient authority than any heathen writer hath to 
give us ; and, indeed, being a point of so high wis- 
dom and worth, how could it be but we should 
find it in that book within whose sacred context 
all wisdom is unfolded? Moses, therefore, the 
only lawgiver that we can believe to have been 
visibly taught of God, knowing how vain it was 
to write laws to men whose hearts were not first 
seasoned with the knowledge of God and of his 
works, began from the book of Genesis, as a pro- 
logue to his laws ; which Josephus right well hath 
noted: that the nation of the Jews, reading there- 
in the universal goodness of God to all creatures 
in the creation, and his peculiar favor to them 
in his election of Abraham, their ancestor, from 
whom they could derive so many blessings upon 
themselves, might be moved to obey sincerely, by 
knowing so good a reason of their obedience. If, 
then, in the administration of civil justice, and 
under the obscurity of ceremonial rites, such care 
was had by the wisest of the heathen, and by 
Moses among the Jews, to instruct them at least 
in a general reason of that government to which 
their subjection was required, how much more 
ought the members of the Church, under the 



30 REASON OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT 

Gospel, seek to inform their understanding in the 
reason of that government which the Church 
claims to have over them ! Especially for that 
Church hath in her immediate cure those inner 
parts and affections of the mind, where the seat 
of reason is having power to examine our spiritual 
knowledge, and to demand from us, in God's be- 
half, a service entirely reasonable. 



There is not that thing in the world of more 
grave and urgent importance throughout the 
whole life of man than is discipline. What need 
I instance ! He that hath read with judgment of 
nations and commonwealths, of cities and camps, 
of peace and war, sea and land, will readily agree 
that the flourishing and decaying of all civil so- 
cieties, all the moments and turnings of human 
occasions, are moved to and fro as upon the axle 
of discipline. So that whatsoever power or sway 
in mortal things weaker men have attributed to 
fortune, I durst with more confidence (the honor 
of Divine Providence ever saved) ascribe either 
to the vigor or the slackness of discipline. Nor is 
there any sociable perfection in this life, civil or sa- 
cred, that can be above discipline ; but she is that 
which with her musical cords preserves and holds 
all the parts thereof together. Hence in those 
perfect armies of Cyrus in Xenophon, and Scipio 
in the Roman stories, the excellence of military 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 31 

skill was esteemed, not by the not needing, but by 
the readiest submitting to the edicts of their com- 
mander. And certainly discipline is not only the 
removal of disorder ; but if any visible shape can 
be given to divine things, the very visible shape 
and image of virtue, whereby she is not only seen 
in the regular gestures and motions of her heaven- 
ly paces as she walks, but also makes the harmony 
of her voice audible to mortal ears. Yea, the 
angels themselves, in whom no disorder is feared, 
as the apostle that saw them in his rapture de- 
scribes, are distinguished and quaternioned into 
•their celestial princedoms and satrapies, according 
as God himself has writ his imperial decrees 
through the great provinces of heaven. The 
state also of the blessed in paradise, though never 
so perfect, is not therefore left without discipline, 
whose golden surveying-reed marks out and meas- 
ures every quarter and circuit of New Jerusalem. 
Yet is it not to be conceived that those eterna] 
effluences of sanctity and love in the glorified 
saints should by this means be confined and cloyed 
with repetition of that which is prescribed, but 
that our happiness may orb itself into a thousand 
vagancies of glory and delight, and with a kind of 
eccentrical equation be, as it were, an invariable 
planet of joy and felicity ; how much less can we 
believe that God would leave his frail and feeble, 
though not less beloved Church here below, to the 
perpetual stumble of conjecture and disturbance 



32 REASON OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT 

in this our dark voyage, without the card and 
compass of discipline ? Which is so hard to be of 
man's making, that we may see even in the guid- 
ance of a civil state to worldly happiness, it is 
not for every learned or every wise man, though 
many of them consult in common, to invent or 
frame a discipline : but if it be at all the work of 
man, it must be of such a one as is a true knower 
of himself, and in whom contemplation and prac- 
tice, wit, prudence, fortitude, and eloquence, must 
be rarely met, both to comprehend the hidden 
causes of things, and span in his thoughts all the 
various effects that passion or complexion can 
work in man's nature ; and hereto must his hand 
be at defiance with gain, and his heart in all vir- 
tues heroic; so far is it from the ken of these 
wretched projectors of ours, that bescrawl their 
pamphlets every day with new forms of govern- 
ment for our Church. And therefore all the 
ancient lawgivers were either truly inspired, as 
Moses, or were such men as with authority enough 
might give it out to be so, as Minos, Lycurgus, 
Numa, because they wisely forethought that men 
would never quietly submit to such a discipline as 
had not more of God's hand in it than man's. . . . 
Public preaching indeed is the gift of the Spirit, 
working as best seems to his secret will ; but dis- 
cipline is the practic work of preaching directed 
and applied, as is most requisite, to particular 
duty ; without which it were all one to the benefit 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 33 

of souls, as it would be to the cure of bodies, if all 
the physicians in London should get into the sev- 
eral pulpits of the city, and, assembling all the 
diseased in every parish, should begin a learned 
lecture of pleurisies, palsies, lethargies, to which 
perhaps none there present were inclined ; and so, 
without so much as feeling one pulse, or giving 
the least order to any skilful apothecary, should 
dismiss them from time to time, some groaning, 
some languishing, some expiring, with this only 
charge, to look well to themselves, and do as they 

hear 

Did God take such delight in measuring out the 
pillars, arches, and doors of a material temple ? 
Was he so punctual and circumspect in lavers, 
altars, and sacrifices soon after to be abrogated, 
lest any of these should have been made contrary 
to his mind? Is not a far more perfect work 
more agreeable to his perfections in the most per- 
fect state of the Church Militant, the new alliance 
of God to man ? Should not he rather now by 
his own prescribed discipline have cast his line 
and level upon the soul of man, which is his 
rational temple, and, by the divine square and 
compass thereof, form and regenerate in us the 
lovely shapes of virtues and graces, the sooner to 
edify and accomplish that immortal stature of 
Christ's body, which is his Church, in all her glori- 
ous lineaments and proportions? And that this 
indeed God hath done for us in the Gospel we 
2* c 



34 REASON OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT 

shall see with open eyes, not under a veil. We 
may pass over the history of the Acts and other 
places, turning only to those epistles of St. Paul 
to Timothy and Titus ; where the spiritual eye 
may discern more goodly and gracefully erected, 
than all the magnificence of temple or tabernacle, 
such a heavenly structure of evangelical discipline, 
so diffusive of knowledge and charity to the pros- 
perous increase and growth of the Church, that it 
cannot be wondered if that elegant and artful 
symmetry of the promised new temple in Ezekiel, 
and all those sumptuous things under the law, 
were made to signify the inward beauty and splen- 
dor of the Christian Church thus governed 

And therefore, if God afterward gave or per- 
mitted this insurrection of episcopacy, it is to be 
feared he did it in his wrath, as he gave the 
Israelites a king. With so good a will doth he 
use to alter his own chosen government once es- 
tablished. For mark whether this rare device of 
man's brain, thus preferred before the ordinance 
of God, had better success than fleshly wisdom, 
not counselling with God, is wont to have. So 
far was it from removing schism, that, if schism 
parted the congregations before, now it rent and 
mangled, now it raged. Heresy begat heresy 
with a certain monstrous haste of pregnancy in 
her birth, at once born and bringing forth. Con- 
tentions, before brotherly, were now hostile. Men 
went to choose their bishop as they went to a 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 35 

pitched field, and the day of his election was, like 
the sacking of a city, sometimes ended with the 
blood of thousands. Nor this among heretics 
only, but men of the same belief, yea, confessors ; 
and that with such odious ambition, that Eusebius, 
in his eighth book, testifies he abhorred to write. 
And the reason is not obscure, for the poor dig- 
nity, or rather burden, of a parochial presbyter 
could not engage any great party, nor that to 
any deadly feud : but prelaty was a power of that 
extent and sway, that, if her election were popu- 
lar, it was seldom not the cause of some faction 
or broil in the church. But if her dignity came 
by favor of some prince, she was from that time 
his creature, and obnoxious to comply with his 
ends in state, were they right or wrong. So that, 
instead of finding prelaty an impeacher of schism 
or faction, the more I search, the more I grow 
into all persuasion to think rather that faction and 
she, as with a spousal ring, are wedded together, 

never to be divorced 

Do they keep away schism ? If to bring a 
numb and chill stupidity of soul, an unactive 
blindness of mind, upon the people by their leaden 
doctrine, or no doctrine at all, if to persecute all 
knowing and zealous Christians by the violence of 
their courts, be to keep away schism, they keep 
schism away indeed; and by this kind of disci- 
pline all Italy and Spain is as purely and politicly 
kept from schism as England hath been by them. 



36 REASON OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT 

With as good a plea might the dead-palsy boast 
to a man, It is I that free you from stitches and 
pains, and the troublesome feeling of cold and 
heat, of wounds and strokes : if I were gone, all 
these would molest you. The winter might as 
well vaunt itself against the spring, I destroy all 
noisome and rank weeds, I keep down all pesti- 
lent vapors ; yes, and all wholesome herbs, and all 
fresh . dews, by your violent and hide-bound frost : 
but when the gentle west winds shall open the 
fruitful bosom of the earth, thus overgirded by 
your imprisonment, then the flowers put forth 
and spring, and then the sun shall scatter the 
mists, and the manuring hand of the tiller shall 
root up all that burdens the soil without thank to 

your bondage 

It may suffice us to be taught by St. Paul, that 
there must be sects for the manifesting of those 
that are sound-hearted. These are but winds and 
flaws to try the floating vessel of our faith, whether 
it be stanch and sail well, whether our ballast be 
just, our anchorage and cable strong. By this is 
seen who lives by faith and certain knowledge, and 
who by credulity and the prevailing opinion of the 
age ; whose virtue is of an unchangeable grain, and 
whose of a slight wash. If God come to try our 
constancy, we ought not to shrink or stand the 
less firmly for that, but pass on with more stead- 
fast resolution to establish the truth, though it 
were through a lane of sects and heresies on each 






URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 37 

side. Other things men do to the glory of God : 
but sects and errors, it seems, God suffers to be 
for the glory of good men, that the world may 
know and reverence their true fortitude and un- 
daunted constancy in the truth. Let us not 
therefore make these things an incumbrance, or 
an excuse of our delay in reforming, which God 
sends as us an incitement to proceed with more 
honor and alacrity : for if there were no opposi- 
tion, where were the trial of an unfeigned good- 
ness and magnanimity ? Virtue that wavers is not 
virtue, but vice revolted from itself, and after a 
while returning. The actions of just and pious 
men do not darken in their middle course ; but 
Solomon tells us, they are as the shining light, 
that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. 
But if we shall suffer the trifling doubts and jeal- 
ousies of future sects to overcloud the fair begin- 
nings of purposed reformation, let us rather fear 
that another proverb of the same wise man be not 
upbraided to us, that " the way of the wicked is as 
darkness; they stumble at they know not what." 
If sects and schisms be turbulent in the unsettled 
estate of a church, while it lies under the amend- 
ing hand, it best beseems our Christian courage to 
think they are but as the throes and pangs that go 
before the birth of reformation, and that the work 
itself is now in doing. For if we look but on the 
nature of elemental and mixed things, we know 
they cannot suffer any change of one kind or 



38 REASON OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT 

quality into another, without the struggle of con- 
trarieties. And in things artificial, seldom any 
elegance is wrought without a superfluous waste 
and refuse in the transaction. No marble statue 
can be politely carved, no fair edifice built, with- 
out almost as much rubbish and sweeping. Inso- 
much that even in the spiritual conflict of St. 
Paul's conversion, there fell scales from his eyes, 
that were not perceived before. No wonder, then, 
in the reforming of a church, which is never 
brought to effect without the fierce encounter of 
truth and falsehood together, if, as it were, the 
splinters and shards of so violent a jousting, there 
fall from between the shock many fond errors and 
fanatic opinions, which, when truth has the upper 
hand, and the reformation shall be perfected, will 
easily be rid out of the way, or kept so low, as that 
they shall be only the exercise of our knowledge, 

not the disturbance or interruption of our faith 

In state many things at first are crude and hard 
to digest, which only time and deliberation can 
supple and concoct. But in religion, wherein is 
no immaturity, nothing out of season, it goes far 
otherwise. The door of grace turns upon smooth 
hinges, wide opening to send out, but soon shut- 
ting to recall the precious offers of mercy to a na- 
tion: which, unless watchfulness and zeal, two 
quicksighted and ready-handed virgins, be there 
in our behalf to receive, we lose ; and still the 
oftener we lose, the straiter the door opens, and 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 39 

the less is offered. This is all we get by demur- 
ring in God's service. 



How happy were it for this frail, and as it may 
be called mortal life of man, since all earthly 
things which have the name of good and conven- 
ient in our daily use, are withal so cumbersome 
and full of trouble, if knowledge, yet which is the 
best and lightsomest possession of the mind, were, 
as the common saying is, no burden ; and that 
what it wanted of being a load to any part of the 
body, it did not with a heavy advantage overlay 
upon the spirit ! For not to speak of that knowl- 
edge that rests in the contemplation of natural 
causes and dimensions, which must needs be a 
lower wisdom, as the object is low, certain it is, 
that he who hath obtained in more than the scan- 
tiest measure to know anything distinctly of God, 
and of his true worship, and what is infallibly good 
and happy in the state of man's life, what in itself 
evil and miserable, though vulgarly not so es- 
teemed, — he that hath obtained to know this, the 
only high valuable wisdom indeed, remembering 
also that God, even to a strictness, requires the im- 
provement of those his intrusted gifts, cannot but 
sustain a sorer burden of mind, and more pressing 
than any supportable toil or weight which the body 
can labor under, how and in what manner he shall 
dispose and employ these sums of knowledge and 



40 REASON OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT 

illumination, which God hath sent him into this 
world to trade with. And that which aggravates 
the burden more is, that, having received amongst 
his allotted parcels certain precious truths, of 
such an orient lustre as no diamond can equal, 
which nevertheless he has in charge to put off at 
any cheap rate, yea, for nothing to them that will, 
the great merchants of this world, fearing that this 
course would soon discover and disgrace the false 
glitter of their deceitful wares, wherewith they 
abuse the people, like poor Indians with beads and 
glasses, practise by all means how they may sup- 
press the vending of such rarities, and at such a 
cheapness as would undo them, and turn their 
trash upon their hands. Therefore, by gratifying 
the corrupt desires of men in fleshly doctrines, they 
stir them up to persecute with hatred and con- 
tempt all those that seek to bear themselves up- 
rightly in this their spiritual factory : which they 
foreseeing, though they cannot but testify of truth, 
and the excellency of that heavenly traffic which 
they bring, against what opposition or danger so- 
ever, yet needs must it sit heavily upon their spir- 
its, that being, in God's prime intention and their 
own, selected heralds of peace, and dispensers of 
treasure inestimable, without price, to them that 
have no peace, they find in the discharge of their 
commission that they are made the greatest vari- 
ance and offence, a very sword and fire, both 
in house and city, over the whole earth. This 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 41 

is that which the sad prophet Jeremiah laments : 
" Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne 
me a man of strife and contention ! " And al- 
though divine inspiration must certainly have been 
sweet to those ancient prophets, yet the irksome- 
ness of that truth which they brought was so 
unpleasant unto them, that everywhere they call 
it a burden. Yea, that mysterious book of revela- 
tion which the great Evangelist was bid to eat, as 
it had been some eye-brightening electuary of 
knowledge and foresight, though it were sweet in 
his mouth, and in the learning, it was bitter in his 
belly, bitter in the denouncing. Nor was this hid 
from the wise poet Sophocles, who in that place of 
his tragedy where Tiresias is called to resolve 
King OEdipus in a matter which he knew would be 
grievous, brings him in bemoaning his lot, that he 
knew more than other men. For surely to every 
good and peaceable man it must in nature needs 
be a hateful thing to be the displeaser and molest- 
er of thousands ; much better would it like him 
doubtless to be the messenger of gladness and con- 
tentment which is his chief intended business to all 
mankind, but that they resist and oppose their own 
true happiness. But when God commands to take 
the trumpet, and blow a dolorous or a jarring 
blast, it lies not in man's will, what he shall say, 
or what he shall conceal. If he shall think to be 
silent as Jeremiah did, because of the reproach 
and derision he met with daily, — " And all his 



42 REASON OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT 

familiar friends watched for his halting," to be re- 
venged on him for speaking the truth, — he would 
be forced to confess as he confessed : " His word 
was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my 
bones ; I was weary with forbearing, and could 
not stay." Which might teach these times not 
suddenly to condemn all things that are sharply 
spoken or vehemently written as proceeding out 
of stomach, virulence, or ill-nature, but to consid- 
er rather, that, if the prelates have leave to say 
the worst that can be said, or do the worst that 
can be done, while they strive to keep to them- 
selves, to their great pleasure and commodity, 
those things which they ought to render up, no 
man can be justly oifended with him that shall 
endeavor to impart and bestow, without any gain 
to himself, those sharp but saving words which 
would be a terror and a torment in him to keep 
back. 

For me, I have determined to lay up as the best 
treasure and solace of a good old age, if God 
vouchsafe it me, the honest liberty of free speech 
from my youth, where I shall think it available in 
so dear a concernment as the Church's good. For 
if I be, either by disposition or what other cause, 
too inquisitive, or suspicious of myself and mine 
own doings, who can help it ? But this I foresee, 
that should the Church be brought under heavy op- 
pression, and God have given me ability the while 
to reason against that man that should be the author. 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 43 

of so foul a deed, — or should she, by blessing from 
above on the industry and courage of faithful men, 
change this her distracted estate into better days 
without the least furtherance or contribution of 
those few talents which God at that present had 
lent me, — I foresee what stories I should hear 
within myself, all my life after, of discourage and 
reproach. Timorous and ungrateful, the Church 
of God is now again at the foot of her insulting 
enemies, and thou bewailest. What matters it for 
thee, or thy bewailing? When time was, thou 
couldst not find a syllable of all that thou hast 
read, or studied, to utter in her behalf. Yet ease 
and leisure was given thee for thy retired thoughts, 
out of the sweat of other men. Thou hast the dil- 
igence, the parts, the language of a man, if a vain 
subject were to be adorned or beautified; but 
when the cause of God and his Church was to be 
pleaded, for which purpose that tongue was given 
thee which thou hast, God listened if he could 
hear thy voice among his zealous servants, but 
thou wert dumb as a beast ; from henceforward be 
that which thine own brutish silence hath made 
thee. Or else I should have heard on the other 
ear : Slothful, and ever to be set light by, the 
Church hath now overcome her late distresses 
after the unwearied labors of many her true ser- 
vants that stood up in her defence ; thou also 
wouldst take upon thee to share amongst them of 
their joy: but wherefore thou? Where canst 



U REASON OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT 

thou show any word or deed of thine which might 
have hastened her peace ? Whatever thou dost 
now talk, or write, or look, is the alms of other 
men's active prudence and zeal. Dare not now to 
say or do anything better than thy former sloth 
and infancy ; or if thou darest, thou dost impudent- 
ly to make a thrifty purchase of boldness to thyself, 
out of the painful merits of other men ; what be- 
fore was thy sin is now thy duty, to be abject and 
worthless. These, and such like lessons as these, 
I know would have been my matins duly and my 
even-song. But now, by this little diligence, mark 
what a privilege I have gained with good men and 
saints to claim my right of lamenting the tribula- 
tions of the Church, if she should suffer when 
others, that have ventured nothing for her sake, 
have not the honor to be admitted mourners. 
But if she lift up her drooping head and pros- 
per, among those that have something more than 
wished her welfare, I have my charter and free- 
hold of rejoicing to me and my heirs. Concern- 
ing, therefore, this wayward subject, against prel- 
aty, the touching whereof is so distasteful and dis- 
quietous to a number of men, as by what hath 
been said I may deserve of charitable readers to 
be credited, that neither envy nor gall hath en- 
tered me upon this controversy, but the enforce- 
ment of conscience only, and a preventive fear 
lest the omitting of this duty should be against me, 
when I would store up to myself the good provis- 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 45 

ion of peaceful hours : so, lest it should be still im- 
puted to me, as I have found it hath been, that 
some self-pleasing humor of vainglory hath incited 
me to contest with men of high estimation, now 
while green years are upon my head, from this 
needless surmisal I shall hope to dissuade the intel- 
ligent and equal auditor, if I can but say success- 
fully that which in this exigent behoves me ; al- 
though I would be heard only, if it might be, by 
the elegant and learned reader, to whom principally 
for a while I shall beg leave I may address myself. 
To him it will be no new thing, though I tell him 
that if I hunted after praise, by the ostentation of 
wit and learning, I should not write thus out of 
mine own season, when I have neither yet com- 
pleted to my mind the full circle of my private 
studies, although I complain not of any insufficien- 
cy to the matter in hand ; or were I ready to my 
wishes, it were a folly to commit anything elabo- 
rately composed to the careless and interrupted 
listening of these tumultuous times. Next, if I 
were wise only to my own ends, I would certainly 
take such a subject as of itself might catch ap- 
plause, whereas this hath all the disadvantages on 
the contrary, and such a subject as the publishing 
whereof might be delayed at pleasure, and time 
enough to pencil it over with all the curious 
touches of art, even to the perfection of a fault- 
less picture ; whereas in this argument the not de- 
ferring is of great moment to the good speeding, 



46 RE F CHURCH GOYERXMEXT 

that if solidity have leisure to do her office, art 
cannot have much. Lastly, I should not choose 
this manner of writing, wherein kn 
inferior to myself, led by the genial power of na- 
ture to another task, I have tin 1 may ac- 
count, but of my left hand. And then 
foolish in saying more to this purpo> 
will be such a folly | m^n go about to com- 
mit, having only confessed and so cor. I may 
trust with more reason, because with mo 
have courteous pardon. For although a poet, soar- 
ing in the high reason of his 
land and singing-robes about him, might, without 
apology, speak more of himself than I mean to do; 
yet for me, sitting here below in the cool elei 
of prose, a mortal thing among many of no 
empyreal ec*u . venture and d usual 
things of myself, I shall petition to the gentler sort, 
it may not be envy to me. I no therefore, 
that after I had for my 

diligence and care of my father, (whom God recom- 
pense !) been exercised to the tongues, and some 
sciences, as n; aid swfl\ mas- 

ters and teachers, both at home and at the schools, 
it was found that whether aught was imposed me 
by them that had the overlooking, or betaken to 
of mine own choice in English, or other tongue, 
prosing or versing, but cl .his latter, die 

by certain vital signs had, was Kk, 
But much btelier in the private academies 



7" --Z1 ± :-j.s:>\:7 77.1zj.77 .r 








48 REASON OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT 

preter and relater of the best and sagest things 
among mine own citizens throughout this island in 
the mother dialect. That what the greatest and 
choicest wits of Athens, Rome, or modern Italy, 
and those Hebrews of old did for their country, 
I, in my proportion, with this over and above of 
being a Christian, might do for mine ; not caring 
to be once named abroad, though perhaps I could 
attain to that, but content with these British isl- 
ands as my world ; whose fortune hath hitherto 
been, that if the Athenians, as some say, made 
their small deeds great and renowned by their elo- 
quent writers, England hath had her noble achieve- 
ments made small by the unskilful handling of 
monks and mechanics. 

Time serves not now, and perhaps I might seem 
too profuse to give any certain account of what 
the mind at home, in the spacious circuits of her 
musing, hath liberty to propose to herself, though 
of highest hope and hardest attempting ; whether 
that epic form whereof the two poems of Homer, 
and those other two of Virgil and Tasso, are a 
diffuse, and the book of Job a brief model: or 
whether the rules of Aristotle herein are strictly 
to be kept, or nature to be followed, which in 
them that know art, and use judgment, is no trans- 
gression, but an enriching of art : and, lastly, what 
king or knight before the Conquest might be cho- 
sen in whom to lay the pattern of a Christian hero. 
And as Tasso gave to a prince of Italy his choice 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 49 

whether he would command him to write of God- 
frey's expedition against the Infidels, or Belisa- 
rius against the Goths, or Charlemain against 
the Lombards ; if to the instinct of nature and the 
emboldening of art aught may be trusted, and that 
there be nothing adverse in our climate, or the fate 
of this age, it haply would be no rashness, from an 
equal diligence and inclination, to present the like 
offer in our own ancient stories ; or whether those 
dramatic constitutions, wherein Sophocles and Eu- 
ripides reign, shall be found more doctrinal and 
exemplary to a nation. The Scripture also af- 
fords us a divine pastoral drama in the Song of 
Solomon, consisting of two persons, and a double 
chorus, as Origen rightly judges. And the Apoc- 
alypse of St. John is the majestic image of a high 
and stately tragedy, shutting up and intermin- 
gling her solemn scenes and acts with a sevenfold 
chorus of hallelujahs and harping symphonies : 
and this my opinion the grave authority of Paro- 
us, commenting that book, is sufficient to confirm. 
Or if occasion shall lead, to imitate those magnific 
odes and hymns, wherein Pindarus and Callima- 
chus are in most things worthy, some others in 
their frame judicious, in their matter most an end 
faulty. But those frequent songs throughout the 
law and prophets beyond all these, not in their di- 
vine argument alone, but in the very critical art 
of composition, may be easily made appear over 
all the kinds of lyric poesy to be incomparable. 



50 REASON OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT 

These abilities, wheresoever they be found, are 
the inspired gift of God, rarely bestowed, but yet 
to some (though most abuse) in every nation ; 
and are of power, beside the office of a pulpit, 
to imbreed and cherish in a great people the seeds 
of virtue and public civility, to allay the perturba- 
tions of the mind, and set the affections in right 
tune ; to celebrate in glorious and lofty hymns the 
throne and equipage of God's almightiness, and 
what he works, and what he suffers to be wrought 
with high providence in his Church ; to sing vic- 
torious agonies of martyrs and saints, the deeds 
and triumphs of just and pious nations, doing val- 
iantly through faith against the enemies of Christ ; 
to deplore the general relapses of kingdoms and 
states from justice and God's true worship. Last- 
ly, whatsoever in religion is holy and sublime, in 
virtue amiable or grave, whatsoever hath passion 
or admiration in all the changes of that which is 
called fortune from without, or the wily subtleties 
and refluxes of man's thoughts from within ; all 
these things with a solid and treatable smoothness 
to paint out and describe : teaching over the 
whole book of sanctity and virtue, through all the 
instances of example, with such delight to those 
especially of soft and delicious temper, who will 
not so much as look upon truth herself unless they 
see her elegantly dressed ; that whereas the paths 
of honesty and good life appear now rugged and 
difficult, though they be indeed easy and pleasant, 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 51 

they will then appear to all men both easy and 
pleasant, though they were ragged and difficult 
indeed. And what a benefit this would be to our 
youth and gentry, may be soon guessed by what 
we know of the corruption and bane which they 
suck in daily from the writings and interludes of 
libidinous and ignorant poetasters, who, having 
scarce ever heard of that which is the main con- 
sistence of a true poem, the choice of such per- 
sons as they ought to introduce, and what is moral 
and decent to each one, do for the most part lay 
up vicious principles in sweet pills to be swallowed 
down, and make the taste of virtuous documents 
harsh and sour. But because the spirit of man 
cannot demean itself lively in this body, without 
some recreating intermission of labor and serious 
things, it were happy for the commonwealth, if 
our magistrates, as in those famous governments 
of old, would take into their care, not only the de- 
ciding of our contentious law-cases and brawls, 
but the managing of our public sports and festi- 
val pastimes ; that they might be, not such as 
were authorized a while since, the provocations of 
drunkenness and lust, but such as may inure and 
harden our bodies by martial exercises to all 
warlike skill and performance; and may civilize, 
adorn, and make discreet our minds by the learned 
and affable meeting of frequent academies, and 
the procurement of wise and artful recitations, 
sweetened with eloquent and graceful enticements 



52 REASON OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT 

to the love and practice of justice, temperance, and 
fortitude, instructing and bettering the nation at 
all opportunities, that the call of wisdom and vir- 
tue may be heard everywhere, as Solomon saith : 
" She crieth without, she uttereth her voice in 
the streets, in the top of high places, in the chief 
concourse, and in the openings of the gates." 
Whether this may not be, not only in pulpits, but 
after another persuasive method, at set and solemn 
paneguries, in theatres, porches, or what other 
place or way may win most upon the people to 
receive at once both recreation and instruction, let 
them in authority consult. The thing which I 
had to say, and those intentions which have lived 
within me ever since I could conceive myself any- 
thing worth to my country, I return to crave ex- 
cuse that urgent reason hath plucked from me, by 
an abortive and foredated discovery. And the 
accomplishment of them lies not but in a power 
above man's to promise ; but that none hath by 
more studious ways endeavored, and with more 
unwearied spirit that none shall, that I dare al- 
most aver of myself, as far as life and free leisure 
will extend ; and that the land had once enfran- 
chised herself from this impertinent yoke of pre- 
laty, under whose inquisitorious and tyrannical 
duncery no free and splendid wit can flourish. 
Neither do I think it shame to covenant with any 
knowing reader, that for some few years yet I 
may go on trust with him toward the payment of 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 53 

what I am now indebted, as being a work not to 
be raised from the heat of youth, or the vapors of 
wine ; like that which flows at waste from the pen 
of some vulgar amourist, or the trencher fury of 
a rhyming parasite ; nor to be obtained by the 
invocation of Dame Memory and her siren daugh- 
ters, but by devout prayer to that Eternal Spirit, 
who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, 
and sends out his seraphim, with the hallowed fire 
of his altar, to touch and purify the lips of whom 
he pleases : to this must be added industrious and 
select reading, steady observation, insight into all 
seemly, and generous arts and affairs ; till which 
in some measure be compassed, at mine own peril 
and cost, I refuse not to sustain this expectation 
from as many as are not loath to hazard so much 
credulity upon the best pledges that I can give 
them. Although it nothing content me to have 
disclosed thus much beforehand, but that I trust 
hereby to make it manifest with what small will- 
ingness I endure to interrupt the pursuit of no 
less hopes than these, and leave a calm and pleas- 
ing solitariness, fed with cheerful and confident 
thoughts, to embark in a troubled sea of noises 
and hoarse disputes, put from beholding the bright 
countenance of truth in the quiet and still air of 
delightful studies, to come into the dim reflection 
of hollow antiquities sold by the seeming bulk, 
and there be fain to club quotations with men 
whose learning and belief lies in marginal stun - 



54 REASON OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT 

ings, who, when they have, like good sumpters, 
laid ye down their horse-loads of citations and 
fathers at your door, with a rhapsody of who and 
who were bishops here or there, ye may take off 
their packsaddles, their day's work is done, and 
episcopacy, as they think, stoutly vindicated. Let 
any gentle apprehension, that can distinguish 
learned pains from unlearned drudgery, imagine 
what pleasure or profoundness can be in this, or 
what honor to deal against such adversaries. But 
were it the meanest under-service, if God by his 
secretary Conscience enjoin it, it were sad for me 
if I should draw back; for me especially, now 
when all men offer their aid to help, ease, and 
lighten the difficult labors of the Church, to whose 
service, by the intentions of my parents and 
friends, I was destined of a child, and in mine 
own resolutions : till coming to some maturity of 
years, and perceiving what tyranny had invaded 
the Church, that he who would take orders must 
subscribe slave, and take an oath withal, which, 
unless he took with a conscience that would retch, 
he must either straight perjure, or split his faith ; 
I thought it better to prefer a blameless silence 
before the sacred office of speaking, bought and 
begun with servitude and forswearing. Howso- 
ever, thus church-outed by the prelates, hence 
may appear the right I have to meddle in these 
matters, as before the necessity and constraint ap- 
peared 






URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 55 

Who is there almost that measures wisdom by 
simplicity, strength by suffering, dignity by lowli- 
ness? Who is there that counts it first to be 
last, something to be nothing, and reckons him- 
self of great command in that he is a servant? 
Yet God, when he meant to subdue the world 
and hell at once, part of that to salvation, and 
this wholly to perdition, made choice of no other 
weapons or auxiliaries than these, whether to save 
or to destroy. It had been a small mastery for 
him to have drawn out his legions into array, and 
flanked them with his thunder ; therefore he sent 
foolishness to confute wisdom, weakness to bind 
strength, despisedness to vanquish pride : and this 
is the great mystery of the Gospel made good in 
Christ himself, who, as he testifies, came not to be 
ministered to, but to minister ; and must be ful- 
filled in all his ministers till his second coming. . . . 

For truth, I know not how, hath this unhappi- 
ness fatal to her, ere she can come to the trial and 
inspection of the understanding; being to pass 
through many little wards and limits of the sev- 
eral affections and desires, she cannot shift it, but 
must put on such colors and attire as those pathet- 
ic handmaids of the soul please to lead her in to 
their queen : and if she find so much favor with 
them, they let her pass in her own likeness ; if 
not, they bring her into the presence habited and 
colored like a notorious falsehood. And contrary, 
when any falsehood comes that way, if they like 



56 REASON OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT 

the errand she brings, they are so artful to coun- 
terfeit the very shape and visage of truth, that the 
understanding not being able to discern the fucus 
which these enchantresses with such cunning have 
laid upon the feature sometimes of truth, some- 
times of falsehood interchangeably, sentences for 
the most part one for the other at the first blush, 
according to the subtle imposture of these sensual 
mistresses, that keep the ports and passages be- 
tween her and the object 

But there is yet a more ingenuous and noble 
degree of honest shame, or, call it, if you will, an 
esteem, whereby men bear an inward reverence 
toward their own persons. And if the love of 
God, as a fire sent from heaven to be ever kept 
alive upon the altars of our hearts, be the first 
principle of all godly and virtuous actions in men, 
this pious and just honoring of ourselves is the 
second, and may be thought as the radical moist- 
ure and fountain-head, whence every laudable and 
worthy enterprise issues forth. And although I 
have given it the name of a liquid thing, yet it is 
not incontinent to bound itself, as humid things 
are, but hath in it a most restraining and powerful 
abstinence to start back, and glob itself upward 
from the mixture of any ungenerous and unbe- 
seeming motion, or any soil wherewith it may 
peril to stain itself. Something I confess it is to 
be ashamed of evil-doing in the presence of any ; 
and to reverence the opinion and the countenance 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 57 

of a good man rather than a bad, fearing most in 
his sight to offend, goes so far as almost to be vir- 
tuous ; jet this is but still the fear of infamy, and 
many such, when they find themselves alone, 
saving their reputation, will compound with other 
scruples, and come to a close treaty with their 
dearer vices in secret. But he that holds himself 
in reverence and due esteem, both for the dignity 
of God's image upon him, and for the price of his 
redemption, which he thinks is visibly marked 
upon his forehead, accounts himself both a fit per- 
son to olo the noblest and godliest deeds, and much 
better worth than to deject and defile, with such 
a debasement, and such a pollution as sin is, him- 
self so highly ransomed and ennobled to a new 
friendship and filial relation with God. Nor can 
he fear so much the offence and reproach of 
others, as he dreads and would blush at the re- 
flection of his own severe and modest eye upon 
himself, if it should see him doing or imagining 
that which is sinful, though in the deepest se- 
crecy 

Thus therefore the minister assisted attends his 
heavenly and spiritual cure : where we shall see 
him both in the course of his proceeding, and first 
in the excellency of his end, from the magistrate 
far different, and not more different than excel- 
ling. His end is to recover all that is of man, 
both soul and body, to an everlasting health ; and 
yet as for worldly happiness, which is the proper 
3* 



58 REASON OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT 

sphere wherein the magistrate cannot but confine 
his motion, without a hideous exorbitancy from 
law, so little aims the minister, as his intended 
scope, to procure the much prosperity of this life, 
that ofttimes he may have cause to wish much of 
it away, as a diet puffing up the soul with a slimy 
fleshiness, and weakening her principal organic 
parts. Two heads of evil he has to cope with, 
ignorance and malice. Against the former he 
provides the daily manna of incorruptible doc- 
trine, not at those set meals only in public, but as 
oft as he shall know that each infirmity or consti- 
tution requires. Against the latter with all the 
branches thereof, not meddling with that restrain- 
ing and styptic surgery, which the law uses, not 
indeed against the malady, but against the erup- 
tions, and outermost effects thereof; he, on the 
contrary, beginning at the prime causes and roots 
of the disease, sends in those two divine ingredi- 
ents of most cleansing power to the soul, admo- 
nition and reproof; besides which two, there is no 
drug or antidote that can reach to purge the mind, 
and without which all other experiments are but 
vain, unless by accident. And he that will not 
let these pass into him, though he be the greatest 
king, as Plato affirms, must be thought to remain 
impure within, and unknowing of those things 
wherein his pureness and his knowledge should 
most appear. As soon therefore as it may be 
discerned that the Christian patient, by feeding 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 59 

otherwhere on meats not allowable, but of evil 
juice, hath disordered his diet, and spread an ill- 
humor through his veins, immediately disposing 
to a sickness, the minister, as being much nearer 
both in eye and duty than the magistrate, speeds 
him betimes to overtake that diffused malignance 
with some gentle potion of admonishment; or if 
aught be obstructed, puts in his opening and dis- 
cussive confections. This not succeeding after 
once or twice, or oftener, in the presence of two 
or three his faithful brethren appointed thereto, 
he advises him to be more careful of his dearest 
health, and what it is that he so rashly hath let 
down into the divine vessel of his soul, God's 
temple. If this obtain not, he then, with the 
counsel of more assistants, who are informed of 
what diligence hath been already used, with more 
speedy remedies lays nearer siege to the en- 
trenched causes of his distemper, not sparing such 
fervent and well-aimed reproofs as may best give 
him to see the dangerous estate wherein he is. 
To this also his brethren and friends entreat, ex- 
hort, adjure ; and all these endeavors, as there 
is hope left, are more or less repeated. But if 
neither the regard of himself, nor the reverence 
of his elders and friends prevail with him to leave 
his vicious appetite, then as the time urges, such 
engines of terror God hath given into the hand 
of his minister, as to search the tenderest angles 
of the heart : one while he shakes his stubborn- 



60 REASON OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT 

ness with racking convulsions nigh despair ; other- 
whiles with deadly corrosives he gripes the very 
roots of his faulty liver to bring him to life 
through the entry of death. Hereto the whole 
Church beseech him, beg of him, deplore him, 
pray for him. After all this, performed with 
what patience and attendance is possible, and no 
relenting on his part, having done the utmost of 
their cure, in the name of God and of the Church 
they dissolve their fellowship with him, and, hold- 
ing forth the dreadful sponge of excommunion, 
pronounce him wiped out of the list of God's 
inheritance, and in the custody of Satan till he 
repent. Which horrid sentence, though it touch 
neither life nor limb, nor any worldly possession, 
yet has it such a penetrating force, that swifter 
than any chemical sulphur, or that lightning 
which harms not the skin, and rifles the entrails, 
it scorches the inmost soul. Yet even this terri- 
ble denouncement is left to the Church for no 
other cause but to be as a rough and vehement 
cleansing medicine, where the malady is obdurate, 
a mortifying to life, a kind of saving by undoing. 
And it may be truly said, that as the mercies of 
wicked men are cruelties, so the cruelties of the 
Church are mercies. For if repentance sent from 
Heaven meet this lost wanderer, and draw him 
out of that steep journey wherein he was hasting 
towards destruction, to come and reconcile to the 
Church, if he bring with him his bill of health, 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 61 

and that he is now clear of infection, and of no 
danger to the other sheep ; then with incredible 
expressions of joy all his brethren receive him, 
and set before him those perfumed banquets of 
Christian consolation ; with precious ointments 
bathing and fomenting the old, and now to be 
forgotten stripes, which terror and shame had in- 
flicted; and thus with heavenly solaces they cheer 
up his humble remorse, till he regain his first 

health and felicity 

I cannot better liken the state and person of a 
king than to that mighty Nazarite Samson ; who 
being disciplined from his birth in the precepts 
and the practice of temperance and sobriety, with- 
out the strong drink of injurious and excessive 
desires, grows up to a noble strength and perfec- 
tion with those his illustrious and sunny locks, the 
laws, waving and curling about his godlike shoul- 
ders. And while he keeps them about him undi- 
minished and unshorn, he may with the jawbone 
of an ass, that is, with the word of his meanest 
officer, suppress and put to confusion thousands of 
those that rise against his just power. But laying 
down his head among the strumpet flatteries of 
prelates, while he sleeps and thinks no harm, they 
wickedly shaving off all those bright and weighty 
tresses of his law, and just prerogatives, which 
were his ornament and strength, deliver him over 
to indirect and violent counsels, which, as those 
Philistines, put out the fair and far-sighted eyes 



62 REASON OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

of his natural discerning, and make him grind in 
the prison-house of their sinister ends and practices 
upon him ; till he, knowing this prelatical razor to 
have bereft him of his wonted might, nourish 
again his puissant hair, the golden beams of law 
and right; and they sternly shook thunder with 
ruin upon the heads of those his evil counsellors, 
but not without great affliction to himself. .... 

Though God for less than ten just persons would 
not spare Sodom, yet if you can find, after due 
search, but only one good thing in prelaty, either 
to religion or civil government, to King or Parlia- 
ment, to prince or people, to law, liberty, wealth, 
or learning, spare her, let her live, let her spread 
among ye, till with her shadow all your dignities 
and honors, and all the glory of the land be dark- 
ened and obscured. But on the contrary, if she 
be found to be malignant, hostile, destructive to all 
these, as nothing can be surer, then let your severe 
and impartial doom imitate the divine vengeance ; 
rain down your punishing force upon this godless 
and oppressing government, and bring such a dead 
sea of subversion upon her, that she may never in 
this land rise more to afflict the holy reformed 
Church, and the elect people of God. 





FROM 

ANIMADVERSIONS UPON THE REMON- 
STRANT'S DEFENCE AGAINST SMEC- 
TYMNUUS. 

*E all know that in private or personal 
injuries, yea, in public sufferings for 
the cause of Christ, his rule and ex- 
ample teaches us to be so far from a 
readiness to speak evil, as not to answer the re- 
viler in his language, though never so much pro- 
voked: yet in the detecting and convincing of 
any notorious enemy to truth and his country's 
peace, especially that is conceited to have a volu- 
ble and smart fluence of tongue, and in the vain 
confidence of that, and out of a more tenacious 
cling to worldly respects, stands up for all the 
rest to justify a long usurpation and convicted 
pseudepiscopy of prelates, with all their ceremo- 
nies, liturgies, and tyrannies, which God and man 
are now ready to explode and hiss out of the land ; 
I suppose, and more than suppose, it will be noth- 
ing disagreeing from Christian meekness to handle 
such a one in a rougher accent, and to send home 



64 FROM ANIMADVERSIONS UPON THE 

his haughtiness well bespurted with his own holy- 
water. Nor to do thus are we unautoritied either 
from the moral precept of Solomon, to answer 
him thereafter that prides him in his folly; nor 
from the example of Christ, and all his followers 
in all ages, who, in the refuting of those that re- 
sisted sound doctrine, and by subtile dissimula- 
tions corrupted the minds of men, have wrought 
up their zealous souls into such vehemencies, as 
nothing could be more killingly spoken : for who 
can be a greater enemy to mankind, who a more 
dangerous deceiver, than he who, defending a tra- 
ditional corruption, uses no common arts, but with 
a wily stratagem of yielding to the time a greater 
part of his cause, seeming to forego all that man's 
invention hath done therein, and driven from 
much of his hold in Scripture ; yet leaving it hang- 
ing by a twined thread, not from divine command, 
but from apostolical prudence or assent ; as if he 
had the surety of some rolling trench, creeps up 
by this mean to his relinquished fortress of divine 
authority again, and still hovering between the 
confines of that which he dares not be openly, and 
that which he will not be sincerely, trains on the 
easy Christian insensibly within the close ambush- 
ment of worst errors, and with a sly shuffle of 
counterfeit principles, chopping and changing till 
he have gleaned all the good ones out of their 
minds, leaves them at last, after a slight resem- 
blance of sweeping and garnishing, under the 



DEFENCE AGAINST SMECTYMNUUS. 65 

sevenfold possession of a desperate stupidity? 
And, therefore, they that love the souls of men, 
which is the dearest love, and stirs up the noblest 
jealousy, when they meet with such collusion, 
cannot be blamed though they be transported with 
the zeal of truth to a well-heated fervency; es- 
pecially, seeing they which thus offend against the 
souls of their brethren, do it with delight to their 
great gain, ease, and advancement in this world ; 
but they that seek to discover and oppose their 
false trade of deceiving, do it not without a sad 
and unwilling anger, not without many hazards ; 
but without all private and personal spleen, and 
without any thought of earthly reward, whenas 
this very course they take stops their hopes of 
ascending above a lowly and unenviable pitch in 
this life. And although in the serious uncasing 
of a grand imposture (for to deal plainly with 
you, readers, prelaty is no better) there be mixed 
here and there such a grim laughter as may ap- 
pear at the same time in an austere visage, it can- 
not be taxed of levity or insolence, for even this 
vein of laughing (as I could produce out of grave 
authors) hath ofttimes a strong and sinewy force 
in teaching and confuting; nor can there be a 
more proper object of indignation and scorn to- 
gether, than a false prophet taken in the greatest, 
dearest, and most dangerous cheat, the cheat of 
souls : in the disclosing whereof, if it be harmful 
to be angry, and withal to cast a lowering smile, 



66 FROM ANIMADVERSIONS UPON THE 

when the properest object calls for both, it will be 
long enough ere any be able to say, why those two 
most rational faculties of human intellect, anger and 
laughter, were first seated in the breast of man 

The Romans had a time, once every year, when 
their slaves might freely speak their minds; it 
were hard if the freeborn people of England, with 
whom the voice of truth for these many years, 
even against the proverb, hath not been heard but 
in corners, after all your monkish prohibitions, 
and expurgatorious indexes, your gags and snaf- 
fles, your proud Imprimaturs not to be obtained 
without the shallow surview, but not shallow hand 
of some mercenary, narrow-souled, and illiterate 
chaplain ; when liberty of speaking, than which 
nothing is more sweet to man, was girded and 
strait-laced almost to a broken- winded phthisic, if 
now at a good time, our time of parliament, the 
very jubilee and resurrection of the state, if now 
the concealed, the aggrieved, and long-persecuted 
truth, could not be suffered to speak ; and though 
she burst out with some efficacy of words, could 
not be excused after such an injurious strangle of 
silence, nor avoid the censure of libelling, it were 
hard, it were something pinching in a kingdom of 
free spirits. Some princes and great statists have 
thought it a prime piece of necessary policy to 
thrust themselves under disguise into a popular 
throng, to stand the night long under eaves of 



DEFENCE AGAINST SMECTYMNUUS. 67 

houses, and low windows, that they might hear 
everywhere the utterances of private breasts, and 
amongst them find out the precious gem of truth, 
as amongst the numberless pebbles of the shore ; 
whereby they might be the abler to discover, and 
avoid, that deceitful and close-couched evil of flat- 
tery that ever attends them, and misleads them, 
and might skilfully know how to apply the several 
redresses to each malady of state, without trust- 
ing the disloyal information of parasites and syco- 
phants : whereas now this permission of free writ- 
ing, were there no good else in it, yet at some 
times thus licensed, is such an unripping, such an 
anatomy of the shyest and tenderest particular 
truths, as makes not only the whole nation in many 
points the wiser, but also presents and carries 
home to princes, men most remote from vulgar 
concourse, such a full insight of every lurking 
evil, or restrained good among the commons, as 
that they shall not need hereafter, in old cloaks 
and false beards, to stand to the courtesy of a 

night-walking cudgeller for eaves-dropping 

Who could be angry, therefore, but those that are 
guilty, with these free-spoken and plain-hearted 
men, that are the eyes of their country, and the 
prospective glasses of their prince ? . . . . 

But he that shall bind himself to make antiqui- 
ty his rule, if he read but part, besides the diffi- 
culty of choice, his rule is deficient, and utterly 
unsatisfying ; for there may be other writers of 



68 FROM ANIMADVERSIONS UPON THE 

another mind which he hath not seen ; and if he 
undertake all, the length of man's life cannot ex- 
tend to give him a full and requisite knowledge 
of what was done in antiquity. Why do we 
therefore stand worshipping and admiring this un- 
active and lifeless Colossus, that, like a carved 
giant terribly menacing to children and weaklings, 
lifts up his club, but strikes not, and is subject to 
the muting of every sparrow? If you let him 
rest upon his basis, he may perhaps delight the 
eyes of some with his huge and mountainous 
bulk, and the quaint workmanship of his massy 
limbs ; but if ye go about to take him in pieces, 
ye mar him; and if you think, like pigmies, to 
turn and wind him whole as he is, besides your 
vain toil and sweat, he may chance to fall upon 

your own heads 

We shall adhere close to the Scriptures of God, 
which he hath left us as the just and adequate 
measure of truth, fitted and proportioned to the 
diligent study, memory, and use of every faithful 
man, whose every part consenting, and making up 
the harmonious symmetry of complete instruction, 
is able to set out to us a perfect man of God, or 
bishop thoroughly furnished to all the good works 
of his charge : and with this weapon, without 
stepping a foot farther, we shall not doubt to bat- 
ter and throw down your Nebuchadnezzar's im- 
age, and crumble it like the chaff of the summer 
threshing-floors, as well the gold of those apostolic 



DEFENCE AGAINST SMECTYMNUUS. 69 

successors that you boast of, as your Constantinian 
silver, together with the iron, the brass, and the clay 

of those muddy and strawy ages that follow 

" They cannot name any man in this nation, 
that ever contradicted episcopacy, till this pres- 
ent age." What an overworn and bedridden ar- 
gument is this ! the last refuge ever of old false- 
hood, and therefore a good sign, I trust, that your 
castle cannot hold out long. This was the plea of 
Judaism and idolatry against Christ and his Apos- 
tles, of Papacy against Reformation ; and perhaps 
to the frailty of flesh and blood in a man destitute 
of better enlightening may for some while be par- 
donable : for what has fleshly apprehension other 
to subsist by than succession, custom, and visibil- 
ity; which only hold, if in his weakness and 
blindness he be loath to lose, who can blame ? 
But in a Protestant nation, that should have 
thrown off these tattered rudiments long ago, 
after the many strivings of God's Spirit, and our 
fourscore years' vexation of him in this our wilder- 
ness since Reformation began to urge these rot- 
ten principles, and twit us with the present age, 
which is to us an age of ages wherein God is man- 
ifestly come down among us to do some remarka- 
ble good to our church or state, is as if a man 
should tax the renovating and reingendering Spirit 
of God with innovation, and that new creature 
for an upstart novelty ; yea, the New Jerusalem, 
which, without your admired link of succession, 



70 FROM ANIMADVERSIONS UPON THE 

descends from heaven, could not escape some such 
like censure. If you require a further answer, it 
will not misbecome a Christian to be either more 
magnanimous or more devout than Scipio was, 
who, instead of other answer to the frivolous 
accusations of Petilius the Tribune, " This day, 
Romans," saith he, " I fought with Hannibal 
prosperously; let us all go and thank the gods 
that gave us so great a victory " ; in like manner 
will we now say, not caring otherwise to answer 
this unprotestantlike objection : In this age, Brit- 
ons, God hath reformed his Church after many 
hundred years of Popish corruption; in this age 
he hath freed us from the intolerable yoke of pre- 
lates and papal discipline ; in this age he hath 
renewed our protestation against all those yet re- 
maining dregs of superstition. Let us all go, 
every true protested Briton, throughout the three 
kingdoms, and render thanks to God the Father 
of light, and Fountain of heavenly grace, and to 
His Son Christ our Lord, leaving this remonstrant 
and his adherents to their own designs; and let 
us recount, even here without delay, the patience 
and long-suffering that God hath used towards our 
blindness and hardness time after time. For he 
being equally near to his whole creation of man- 
kind, and of free power to turn his beneficent and 
fatherly regard to what region or kingdom he 
pleases, hath yet ever had this island under the 
special indulgent eye of his providence, and pity 



DEFENCE AGAINST SMECTYMNUUS. 71 

ing us the first of all other nations, after he had 
decreed to purify and renew his Church that lay 
wallowing in idolatrous pollutions, sent first to 
us a healing messenger to touch softly our sores, 
and carry a gentle hand over our wounds : he 
knocked once and twice, and came again opening 
our drowsy eyelids leisurely by that glimmering 
light which Wickliff and his followers dispersed; 
and still taking off by degrees the inveterate 
scales from our nigh perished sight, purged also 
our deaf ears, and prepared them to attend his 
second warning trumpet in our grandsire's days. 
How else could they have been able to have re- 
ceived the sudden assault of his reforming Spirit, 
warring against human principles, and carnal 
sense, the pride of flesh, that still cried up an- 
tiquity, custom, canons, councils, and laws ; and 
cried down the truth for novelty, schism, profane- 
ness, and sacrilege ? whenas we that have lived 
so long in abundant light, besides the sunny re- 
flection of all the neighboring churches, have yet 
our hearts riveted with those old opinions, and so 
obstructed and benumbed with the same fleshy 
reasonings, which in our forefathers soon melted 
and gave way, against the morning beam of Ref- 
ormation. If God had left undone this whole 
work, so contrary to flesh and blood, till these 
times, how should we have yielded to his heavenly 
call, had we been taken, as they were, in the 
starkness of our ignorance ; that yet, after all 



72 FROM ANIMADVERSIONS UPON THE 

these spiritual preparatives and purgations, have 
our earthly apprehensions so clammed and furred 
with the old leaven ? O if we freeze at noon after 
their early thaw, let us fear lest the sun forever 
hide himself, and turn his orient steps from our 
ingrateful horizon, justly condemned to be eter- 
nally benighted. Which dreadful judgment, O 
Thou the ever-begotten Light and perfect Image 
of the Father ! intercede, may never come upon 
us, as we trust thou hast ; for thou hast opened 
our difficult and sad times, and given us an unex- 
pected breathing after our long oppressions : thou 
hast done justice upon those that tyrannized over 
us, while some men wavered and admired a vain 
shadow of wisdom in a tongue nothing slow to ut- 
ter guile, though thou hast taught us to admire 
only that which is good, and to count that only 
praiseworthy, which is grounded upon thy divine 
precepts. Thou hast discovered the plots, and 
frustrated the hopes, of all the wicked in the land, 
and put to shame the persecutors of thy Church : 
thou hast made our false prophets to be found a 
lie in the sight of all the people, and chased them 
with sudden confusion and amazement before the 
redoubled brightness of thy descending cloud, that 
now covers thy tabernacle. Who is there that 
cannot trace thee now in thy beamy walk through 
the midst of thy sanctuary, amidst those golden 
candlesticks, which have long suffered a dimness 
amongst us through the violence of those that had 



DEFENCE AGAINST SMECTYMNUUS. 73 

seized them, and were more taken with the men- 
tion of their gold than of their starry light ; teach- 
ing the doctrine of Balaam, to cast a stumbling- 
block before thy servants, commanding them to 
eat things sacrificed to idols, and forcing them 
to fornication ? Come therefore, O Thou that 
hast the seven stars in thy right hand, appoint 
thy chosen priests according to their orders and 
courses of old, to minister before thee, and duly 
to press and pour out the consecrated oil into thy 
holy and ever-burning lamps. Thou hast sent 
out the spirit of prayer upon thy servants over all 
the land to this effect, and stirred up their vows 
as the sound of many waters about thy throne. 
Every one can say, that now certainly thou hast 
visited this land, and hast not forgotten the utmost 
corners of the earth, in a time when men had 
thought that thou wast gone up from us to the 
furthest end of the heavens, and hadst left to do 
marvellouslv among the sons of these last ages. 
O perfect and accomplish thy glorious acts ! for 
men may leave their works unfinished, but thou 
art a God, thy nature is perfection : shouldst 
thou bring us thus far onward from Egypt to de- 
stroy us in this wilderness, though we deserve, 
yet thy great name would suffer in the rejoicing 
of thine enemies and the deluded hope of all thy 
servants. When thou hast settled peace in the 
Church, and righteous judgment in the kingdom, 
then shall all thy saints address their voices of joy 



74 FROM ANIMADVERSIONS UPON THE 

and triumph to thee, standing on the shore of 
that Red Sea into which our enemies had almost 
driven us. And he that now for haste snatches 
up a plain ungarnished present as a thank-offering 
to thee, which could not be deferred in regard of 
thy so many late deliverances wrought for us one 
upon another, may then perhaps take up a harp 
and sing thee an elaborate song to generations, 
In that day it shall no more be said, as in scorn, 
this or that was never held so till this present age, 
when men have better learnt that the times and 
seasons pass along under thy feet, to go and come 
at thy bidding: and as thou didst dignify our 
fathers' days with many revelations above all the 
foregoing ages, since thou tookest the flesh, so 
thou canst vouchsafe to us (though unworthy) as 
large a portion of thy Spirit as thou pleasest : for 
who shall prejudice thy all-governing will ? seeing 
the power of thy grace is not passed away with 
the primitive times, as fond and faithless men im- 
agine, but thy kingdom is now at hand, and thou 
standing at the door. Come forth out of thy royal 
chambers, O Prince of all the kings of the earth ! 
put on the visible robes of thy imperial majesty, 
take up that unlimited sceptre which thy Almighty 
Father hath bequeathed thee ; for now the voice 
of thy bride calls thee, and all creatures sigh to be 

renewed 

As for ordination, what is it, but the laying on 
of hands, an outward sign or symbol of admission ? 



DEFENCE AGAINST SMECTYMNUUS. lb 

It creates nothing, it confers nothing; it is the 
inward calling of God that makes a minister, and 
his own painful study and diligence that manures 

and improves his ministerial gifts 

We cannot therefore do better than to leave 
this care of ours to God : he can easily send la- 
borers into his harvest, that shall not cry, Give, 
give, but be contented with a moderate and be- 
seeming allowance ; nor will he suffer true learn- 
ing to be wanting, where true grace and our 
obedience to him abounds : for if he give us to 
know him aright, and to practise this our knowl- 
edge in right-established discipline, how much 
more will he replenish us with all abilities in 
tongues and arts, that may conduce to his glory 
and our good ! He can stir up rich fathers to be- 
stow exquisite education upon their children, and 
so dedicate them to the service of the Gospel ; he 
can make the sons of nobles his ministers, and 
princes to be his Nazarites ; for certainly there is 
no employment more honorable, more worthy to 
take up a great spirit, more requiring a generous 
and free nurture, than to be the messenger and 
herald of heavenly truth from God to man, and, 
by the faithful work of holy doctrine, to procreate 
a number of faithful men, making a kind of crea- 
tion like to God's, by infusing his spirit and like- 
ness into them, to their salvation, as God did into 
him; arising to what climate soever he turn him, 
like that Sun of Righteousness that sent him, with 



76 DEFENCE AGAINST SMECTYMNUUS. 

healing in his wings, and new light to break in 
upon the chill and gloomy hearts of his hearers, 
raising out of darksome barrenness a delicious and 
fragrant spring of saving knowledge, and good 
works. 





FROM 

AN APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 

OR doubtless that indeed according to 
art is most eloquent, which turns and 
approaches nearest to nature, from 
whence it came ; and they express na- 
ture best, who in their lives least wander from her 
safe leading, which may be called regenerate rea- 
son. So that how he should be truly eloquent 

who is not withal a good man, I see not 

For as in teaching, doubtless, the spirit of meek- 
ness is most powerful, so are the meek only fit 
persons to be taught : as for the proud, the obsti- 
nate, and false doctors of men's devices, be taught 
they will not, but discovered and laid open they 
must be. 

For how can they admit of teaching, who have 
the condemnation of God already upon them for 
refusing divine instruction ? That is, to be filled 
with their own devices, as in the Proverbs we 
may read: therefore we may safely imitate the 
method that God uses, "with the froward to be 



78 FROM AN APOLOGY 

froward, and to throw scorn upon the scorner," 
whom if anything, nothing else will heal 

Those morning haunts are where they should 
be, at home ; not sleeping, or concocting the sur- 
feits of an irregular feast, but up and stirring, in 
winter often ere the sound of any bell awake men 
to labor, or to devotion; in summer as oft with 
the bird that first rouses, or not much tardier, to 
read good authors, or cause them to be read, till 
the attention be weary, or memory have its full 
fraught: then, with useful and generous labors 
preserving the body's health and hardiness to ren- 
der lightsome, clear, and not lumpish obedience to 
the mind, to the cause of religion, and our coun- 
try's liberty, when it shall require firm hearts in 
sound bodies to stand and cover their stations, 
rather than to see the ruin of our protestation, and 
the enforcement of a slavish life 

But because as well by this upbraiding to me 
the bordelloes, as by other suspicious glancings in 
his book, he would seem privily to point me out to 
his readers, as one whose custom of life were not 
honest, but licentious, I shall entreat to be borne 
with though I digress; and in a way not often 
trod, acquaint ye with the sum of my thoughts in 
this matter, through the course of my years and 
studies : although I am not ignorant how hazard- 
ous it will be to do this under the nose of the 
envious, as it were in skirmish to change the com- 
pact order, and instead of outward actions, to 
bring inmost thoughts into front 



FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 79 

I had my time, readers, as others have, who 
have good learning bestowed upon them, to be 
sent to those places where the opinion was, it 
might be soonest attained ; and as the manner is, 
was not unstudied in those authors which are most 
commended. Whereof some were grave orators 
and historians, whose matter methought I loved 
indeed, but as my age then was, so I understood 
them; others were the smooth elegiac poets, 
whereof the schools are not scarce, whom both 
for the pleasing sound of their numerous writing, 
which in imitation I found most easy, and most 
agreeable to nature's part in me, and for their 
matter, which what it is, there be few who know 
not, I was so allured to read, that no recreation 
came to me better welcome. For that it was then 
those years with me which are excused, though 
they be least severe, I may be saved the labor to 
remember ye. Whence having observed them to 
account it the chief glory of their wit, in that 
they were ablest to judge, to praise, and by that 
could esteem themselves worthiest to love those 
high perfections, which under one or other name 
they took to celebrate ; I thought with myself by 
every instinct and presage of nature, which is not 
wont to be false, that what emboldened them to 
this task, might with such diligence as they used 
embolden me ; and that what judgment, wit, or 
elegance was my share, would herein best appear, 
and best value itself, by how much more wisely, 



80 FROM AN APOLOGY 

and with more love of virtue I should choose 
(let rude ears be absent) the object of not unlike 
praises. . . . By the firm settling of these persua- 
sions, I became, to my best memory, so much a 
proficient, that if I found those authors anywhere 
speaking unworthy things of themselves, or un- 
chaste of those names which before they had ex- 
tolled; this effect it wrought with me, from that 
time forward their art I still applauded, but the 
men I deplored ; and above them all, preferred the 
two famous renowners of Beatrice and Laura, 
who never write but honor of them to whom they 
devote their verse, displaying sublime and pure 
thoughts, without transgression. And long it was 
not after, when I was confirmed in this opinion, 
that he who would not be frustrate of his hope to 
write well hereafter in laudable things, ought him- 
self to be a true poem ; that is, a composition and 
pattern of the best and honorablest things; not 
presuming to sing high praises of heroic men, or 
famous cities, unless he have in himself the expe- 
rience and the practice of all that which is praise- 
worthy. These reasonings, together with a cer- 
tain niceness of nature, an honest haughtiness and 
self-esteem, either of what I was or what I might 
be (which let envy call pride), and lastly that mod- 
esty, whereof, though not in the title-page, yet 
here I may be excused to make some beseeming 
profession ; all these uniting the supply of their 
natural aid together, kept me still above those low 



FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 81 

descents of mind, beneath which he mnst deject 
and plunge himself, that can agree to salable and 
unlawful prostitutions. 

Next (for hear me out now, readers), that I 
may tell ye whither my younger feet wandered ; 
I betook me among those lofty fables and roman- 
ces which recount in solemn cantos the deeds of 
knighthood founded by our victorious kings, and 
from hence had in renown over all Christendom. 
There I read it in the oath of every knight, that 
he should defend, to the expense of his best blood, 
or of his life, if it so befell him, the honor and 
chastity of virgin or matron ; from whence even 
then I learned what a noble virtue chastity sure 
must be, to the defence of which so many wor- 
thies, by such a dear adventure of themselves, 
had sworn. And if I found in the story after- 
ward, any of them, by word or deed, breaking 
that oath, I judged it the same fault of the poet, 
as that which is attributed to Homer, to have 
written indecent things of the gods. Only this 
my mind gave me, that every free and gentle 
spirit, without that oath, ought to be born a 
knight, nor needed to expect a gilt spur, or the 
laying of a sword upon his shoulder to stir him up 
both by his counsel and his arms, to secure and 
protect the weakness of any attempted chastity. 
So that even these books, which to many others 
have been the fuel of wantonness and loose living, 
I cannot think how, unless by divine indulgence, 



82 FROM AN APOLOGY 

proved to me so many incitements, as you have 
heard, to the love and steadfast observation of 
that virtue which abhors the society of bordelloes. 

Thus, from the laureat fraternity of poets, riper 
years and the ceaseless round of study and read- 
ing led me to the shady spaces of philosophy ; but 
chiefly to the divine volumes of Plato, and his 
equal Xenophon : where, if I should tell ye what 
I learnt of chastity and love, — I mean that which 
is truly so, — whose charming cup is only virtue, 
which she bears in her hand to those who are 
worthy (the rest are cheated with a thick intoxi- 
cating potion, which a certain sorceress, the abuser 
of love's name, carries about) ; and how the first 
and chiefest office of love begins and ends in the 
soul, producing those happy twins of her divine 
generation, knowledge and virtue. With such ab- 
stracted sublimities as these, it might be worth 
your listening, readers, as I may one day hope to 
have ye in a still time, when there shall be no 
chiding 

Last of all, not in time, but as perfection is last, 
that care was ever had of me, with my earliest 
capacity, not to be negligently trained in the pre- 
cepts of the Christian religion : this that I have 
hitherto related, hath been to show, that though 
Christianity had been but slightly taught me, yet 
a certain reservedness of natural disposition, and 
moral discipline, learnt out of the noblest philoso- 
phy, was enough to keep me in disdain of far less 



FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 83 

incontinences than this of the bordello. But hav- 
ing had the doctrine of Holy Scripture unfolding 
those chaste and high mvsteries, with timeliest 
care infused, that " the body is for the Lord, and 
the Lord for the body " ; thus also I argued to 
myself, that if unchastity in a woman, whom St. 
Paul terms the glory of man, be such a scandal 
and dishonor, then certainly in a man, who is both 
the image and glory of God, it must, though com- 
monly not so thought, be much more deflouring 
and dishonorable ; in that he sins both against his 
own body, which is the perfecter sex, and his own 
glory, which is in the woman ; and, that which is 
worst, against the image and glory of God, which 
is in himself. Nor did I slumber over that place 
expressing such high rewards of ever accompany- 
ing the Lamb, with those celestial songs to others 
inapprehensible, but not to those who were not de- 
filed with women, which doubtless means fornica- 
tion ; for marriage must not be called a defile- 
ment. 

Thus large I have purposely been, that if I 
have been justly taxed with this crime, it may 
come upon me, after all this my confession, with a 
tenfold shame : but if I have hitherto deserved no 
such opprobrious word, or suspicion, I may hereby 
engage myself now openly to the faithful observa- 
tion of what I have professed 

If therefore the question were in oratory, 
whether a vehement vein throwing out indigna- 



84 FROM AN APOLOGY 

tion or scorn upon an object that merits it, were 
among the aptest ideas of speech to be allowed, 
it were my work, and that an easy one, to make 
it clear both by the rules of best rhetoricians, and 
the famousest examples of the Greek and Roman 
orations. But since the religion of it is disputed, 
and not the art, I shall make use only of such 
reasons and authorities as religion cannot except 
against. It will be harder to gainsay, than for me 
to evince, that in the teaching of men diversely 
tempered, different ways are to be tried. The 
Baptist, we know, was a strict man, remarkable 
for austerity and set order of life. Our Saviour, 
who had all gifts in him, was Lord to express 
his indoctrinating power in what sort him best 
seemed; sometimes by a mild and familiar con- 
verse ; sometimes with plain and impartial home- 
speaking, regardless of those whom the auditors 
might think he should have had in more respect ; 
otherwhile, with bitter and ireful rebukes, if not 
teaching, yet leaving excuseless those his wilful 
impugners. 

What was all in him, was divided among many 
others, the teachers of his church ; some to be se- 
vere and ever of a sad gravity, that they may win 
such, and check sometimes those who be of nature 
over-confident and jocund ; others were sent more 
cheerful, free, and still as it were at large, in the 
midst of an untrespassing honesty ; that they who 
are so tempered, may have by whom they might 



FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 85 

be drawn to salvation, and they who are too 
scrupulous, and dejected of spirit, might be often 
strengthened with wise consolations and reviv- 
ings : no man being forced wholly to dissolve that 
groundwork of nature which God created in him, 
the sanguine to empty out all his sociable liveli- 
ness, the choleric to expel quite the unsinning 
predominance of his anger ; but that each radical 
humor and passion, wrought upon and corrected 
as it ought, might be made the proper mould and 
foundation of every man's peculiar gifts and vir- 
tues. Some also were indued with a staid mod- 
eration and soundness of argument, to teach and 
convmce the rational and sober-minded ; yet not 
therefore that to be thought the only expedient 
course of teaching, for in times of opposition, 
when either against new heresies arising, or old 
corruptions to be reformed, this cool unpassionate 
mildness of positive wisdom is not enough to damp 
and astonish the proud resistance of carnal and 
false doctors, then (that I may have leave to soar 
awhile as the poets use) Zeal, whose substance is 
ethereal, arming in complete diamond, ascends his 
fiery chariot, drawn with two blazing meteors, 
figured hke beasts, but of a higher breed than any 
the zodiac yields, resembling two of those four 
which Ezekiel and St. John saw : the one visaged 
like a lion, to express power, high authority, and 
indignation ; the other of countenance like a man. 
to cast derision and scorn upon perverse and 



86 FROM AN APOLOGY 

fraudulent seducers: with these the invincible 
warrior, Zeal, shaking loosely the slack reins, 
drives over the heads of scarlet prelates, and such 
as are insolent to maintain traditions, bruising 
their stiff necks under his flaming wheels. 

Thus did the true prophets of old combat with 
the false : thus Christ himself, the fountain of 
meekness, found acrimony enough to be still gall- 
ing and vexing the prelatical pharisees. But ye 
will say, these had immediate warrant from God 
to be thus bitter ; and I say, so much the plainer 
is it proved that there may be a sanctified bitter- 
ness against the enemies of truth. Yet that ye 
may not think inspiration only the warrant there- 
of, but that it is as any other virtue of moral and 
general observation, the example of Luther may 
stand for all, whom God made choice of before 
others to be of highest eminence and power in 
reforming the Church ; who, not of revelation, but 
of judgment, writ so vehemently against the chief 
defenders of old untruths in the Romish church, 
that his own friends and favorers were many times 
offended with the fierceness of his spirit ; yet he 
being cited before Charles the Fifth to answer for 
his books, and having divided them into three 
sorts, whereof one was of those which he had 
sharply written, refused, though upon deliberation 
given him, to retract or unsay any word therein. 
.... Yea, he defends his eagerness, as being 
"of an ardent spirit, and one who could not write 



FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 87 

a dull style " : and affirmed " he thought it God's 
will to have the invention of men thus laid open, 
seeing that matters quietly handled were quickly 

forgot." 

Now that the confutant may also know as he 
desires, what force of teaching there is sometimes 
in laughter, I shall return him in short, that 
laughter, being one way of answering " a fool ac- 
cording to his folly," teaches two sorts of persons : 
first, the fool himself, " not to be wise in his own 
conceit," as Solomon affirms ; which is certainly a 
great document to make an unwise man know 
himself. Next, it teacheth the hearers, inasmuch 
as scorn is one of those punishments which belong 
to men carnally wise, which is oft in Scripture de- 
clared ; for when such are punished, " the simple 
are thereby made wise," if Solomon's rule be true. 
And I would ask, to what end Eliah mocked the 
false prophets ? was it to show his wit, or to fulfil 
his humor? Doubtless we cannot imagine that 
great servant of God had any other end, in all 
which he there did, but to teach and instruct the 
poor misled people. And we may frequently 
read, that many of the martyrs in the midst of 
their troubles were not sparing to deride and scoff 
their superstitious persecutors. Now may the 
confutant advise again with Sir Francis Bacon, 
whether Eliah and the martyrs did well to turn 
religion into a comedy or satire ; "to rip up the 
wounds of idolatry and superstition with a laugh- 



88 FROM AN APOLOGY 

ing countenance": so that for pious gravity the 
author here is matched and overmatched, and for 
wit and morality in one that follows : 

" Laughing to teach the truth 
What hinders ? as some teachers give to boys 
Junkets and knacks, that they may learn apace." 

Thus Flaccus in his first satire, and his tenth: 

" Jesting decides great things 
Stronglier and better oft than earnest can." 

I could urge the same out of Cicero and Sen- 
eca, but he may content him with this. And 
henceforward, if he can learn, may know as well 
what are the bounds and objects of laughter and 
vehement reproof, as he hath known hitherto how 
to deserve them both 

Now although it be a digression from the ensu- 
ing matter, yet because it shall not be said I am 
apter to blame others than to make trial myself, 
and that I may, after this harsh discord, touch 
upon a smoother string, awhile to entertain my- 
self and him that list with some more pleasing 
fit, and not the least to testify the gratitude which 
I owe to those public benefactors of their country, 
for the share I enjoy in the common peace and 
good by their incessant labors; I shall be so 
troublesome to this disclaimer for once, as to 
show him what he might have better said in their 
praise ; wherein I must mention only some few 
things of many, for more than that to a digres- 



FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 89 

sion may not be granted. Although certainly 
their actions are worthy not thus to be spoken of 
by the way, yet if hereafter it befall me to attempt 
something more answerable to their great merits, 
I perceive how hopeless it will be to reach the 
height of their praises at the accomplishment of 
that expectation that waits upon their noble deeds, 
the unfinishing whereof already surpasses what 
others before them have left enacted with their 
utmost performance through many ages. And to 
the end we may be confident that what they do 
proceeds neither from uncertain opinion nor sud- 
den counsels, but from mature wisdom, deliberate 
virtue, and dear affection to the public good, I 
shall begin at that which made them likeliest in 
the eyes of good men to effect those things for the 
recovery of decayed religion and the common- 
wealth, which they who were best minded had 
long wished for, but few, as the times then were 
desperate, had the courage to hope for. 

First, therefore, the most of them being either 
of ancient and high nobility, or at least of known 
and well-reputed ancestry, which is a great ad- 
vantage towards virtue one way, but in respect of 
wealth, ease, and flattery, which accompany a nice 
and tender education, is as much a hinderance an- 
other way : the good which lay before them they 
took, in imitating the worthiest of their progeni- 
tors : and the evil which assaulted then younger 
years by the temptation of riches, high birth, and 



90 FROM AN APOLOGY 

that usual bringing up, perhaps too favorable and 
too remiss, through the strength of an inbred 
goodness, and with the help of divine grace, that 
had marked them out for no mean purposes, they 
nobly overcame. Yet had they a greater danger 
to cope with ; for being trained up in the knowl- 
edge of learning, and sent to those places which 
were intended to be the seed-plots of piety and 
the liberal arts, but were become the nurseries of 
superstition and empty speculation, as they were 
prosperous against those vices which grow upon 
youth out of idleness and superfluity, so were they 
happy in working off the harms of their abused 
studies and labors ; correcting by the clearness of 
their own judgment the errors of their misinstruc- 
tion, and were, as David was, wiser than their 
teachers. And although their lot fell into such 
times, and to be bred in such places, where, if 
they chanced to be taught anything good, or of 
their own accord had learnt it, they might see that 
presently untaught them by the custom and ill- 
example of their elders ; so far in all probability 
was their youth from being misled by the single 
power of example, as their riper years were 
known to be unmoved with the baits of prefer- 
ment, and undaunted for any discouragement 
and terror which appeared often to those that 
loved religion and their native liberty ; which 
two things God hath inseparably knit together, 
and hath disclosed to us, that they who seek to 



FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 91 

corrupt our religion are the same that would en- 
thrall our civil liberty. 

Thus in the midst of all disadvantages and dis- 
respects, (some also at last not without imprison- 
ment and open disgraces in the cause of their 
country,) having given proof of themselves to be 
better made and framed by nature to the love and 
practice of virtue, than others under the holiest 
precepts and best examples have been headstrong 
and prone to vice ; and having, in all the trials of 
a firm ingrafted honesty, not oftener buckled in 
the conflict than given every opposition the foil ; 
this moreover was added by favor from Heaven, 
as an ornament and happiness to their virtue, that 
it should be neither obscure in the opinion of 
men, nor eclipsed for want of matter equal to il- 
lustrate itself; God and man consenting in joint 
approbation to choose them out as worthiest above 
others to be both the great reformers of the 
Church, and the restorers of the commonwealth. 
Nor did they deceive that expectation which with 
the eyes and desires of their country was fixed 
upon them : for no sooner did the force of so much 
united excellence meet in one globe of brightness 
and efficacy, but encountering the dazzled resist- 
ance of tyranny, they gave not over, though their 
enemies were strong and subtle, till they had laid 
her grovelling upon the fatal block ; with one 
stroke winning again our lost liberties and char- 
ters, which our forefathers, after so many battles, 
could scarce maintain. 



92 FROM AN APOLOGY 

And meeting next, as I may so resemble, with 
the second life of tyranny, (for she was grown an 
ambiguous monster, and to be slain in two shapes,) 
guarded with superstition, which hath no small 
power to captivate the minds of men otherwise 
most wise, they neither were taken with her mi- 
tred hypocrisy, nor terrified with the push of her 
bestial horns, but breaking them, immediately 
forced her to unbend the pontifical brow, and 
recoil; which repulse only given to the prelates 
(that we may imagine how happy their removal 
would be) was the producement of such glorious 
effects and consequences in the church, that if I 
should compare them with those exploits of high- 
est fame in poems and panegyrics of old, I am 
certain it would but diminish and impair their 
worth, who are now my argument ; for those an- 
cient worthies delivered men from such tyrants as 
were content to enforce only an outward obedi- 
ence, letting the mind be as free as it could ; but 
these have freed us from a doctrine of tyranny, 
that offered violence and corruption even to the 
inward persuasion. They set at liberty nations 
and cities of men good and bad mixed together ; 
but these, opening the prisons and dungeons, 
called out of darkness and bonds the elect martyrs 
and witnesses of their Redeemer. They restored 
the body to ease and wealth; but these, the op- 
pressed conscience to that freedom which is the 
chief prerogative of the Gospel ; taking off those 



FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 93 

cruel burdens, imposed not by necessity, as other 
tyrants are wont, for the safeguard of their lives, 
but laid upon our necks by the strange wilfulness 
and wantonness of a needless and jolly persecutor, 
called Indifference. Lastly, some of those ancient 
deliverers have had immortal praises for preserv- 
ing their citizens from a famine of corn. But 
these, by this only repulse of an unholy hierar- 
chy, almost in a moment, replenished with saving 
knowledge their country, nigh famished for want 
of that which should feed their souls. All this 
being done while two armies in the field stood 
gazing on : the one in reverence of such nobleness 
quietly gave back and dislodged ; the other, spite 
of the unruhness and doubted fidelity in some 
regiments, was either persuaded or compelled to 
disband and retire home. 

With such a majesty had their wisdom begirt 
itself, that whereas others had levied war to sub- 
due a nation that sought for peace, they, sitting 
here in peace, could so many miles extend the 
force of their single words as to overawe the dis- 
solute stoutness of an armed power, secretly stirred 
up and almost hired against them. And having 
by a solemn protestation vowed themselves and 
the kingdom anew to God and his service, and 
by a prudent foresight above what their fathers 
thought on, prevented the dissolution and frustra- 
ting of their designs by an untimely breaking up ; 
notwithstanding all the treasonous plots against 



94 FROM AN APOLOGY 

them, all the rumors either of rebellion or inva- 
sion, they have not been yet brought to change 
their constant resolution, ever to think fearlessly 
of their own safeties, and hopefully of the com- 
monwealth : which hath gained them such an ad- 
miration from all good men that now they hear it 
as their ordinary surname, to be saluted the fathers 
of their country, and sit as gods among daily pe- 
titions and public thanks flowing in upon them. 
Which doth so little yet exalt them in their own 
thoughts, that, with all gentle affability and cour- 
teous acceptance, they both receive and return that 
tribute of thanks which is tendered them ; testify- 
ing their zeal and desire to spend themselves as it 
were piecemeal upon the grievances and wrongs 
of their distressed nation ; insomuch that the 
meanest artisans and laborers, at other times also 
women, and often the younger sort of servants 
assembling with their complaints, and that some- 
times in a less humble guise than for petitioners, 
have gone with confidence, that neither their 
meanness would be rejected, nor their simplicity 
contemned ; nor yet their urgency distasted either 
by the dignity, wisdom, or moderation of that su- 
preme senate ; nor did they depart unsatisfied. 

And, indeed, if we consider the general concourse 
of suppliants, the free and ready admittance, the 
willing and speedy redress in what is possible, it 
will not seem much otherwise, than as if some di- 
vine commission from heaven were descended to 






FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 95 

take into hearing and commiseration the long and 
remediless afflictions of this kingdom, were it not 
that none more than themselves labor to remove 
and divert such thoughts, lest men should place 
too much confidence in their persons, still refer- 
ring us and our prayers to Him that can grant all, 
and appointing the monthly return of public fasts 
and supplications. Therefore the more they seek 
to humble themselves, the more does God, by 
manifest signs and testimonies, visibly honor their 
proceedings ; and sets them as the mediators of 
this his covenant, which he offers us to renew. 
Wicked men daily conspire their hurt, and it 
comes to nothing; rebellion rages in our Irish 
province, but with miraculous and lossless victo- 
ries of few against many, is daily discomfited and 
broken ; if we neglect not this early pledge of 
God's inclining towards us, by the slackness of 
our needful aids. And whereas at other times 
we count it ample honor when God vouchsafes to 
make man the instrument and subordinate worker 
of His gracious will, such acceptation have their 
prayers found with him, that to them he hath 
been pleased to make himself the agent and im- 
mediate performer of their desires; dissolving 
their difficulties when they are thought inexplica- 
ble, cutting out ways for them where no passage 
could be seen ; as who is there so regardless of 
divine Providence, that from late occurrences will 
not confess ? If, therefore, it be so high a grace 



96 FROM AN APOLOGY 

when men are preferred to be but the inferior offi- 
cers of good things from God, what is it when 
God himself condescends, and works with his 
own hands to fulfil the requests of men ? Which 
I leave with them as the greatest praise that can 
belong to human nature : not that we should think 
they are at the end of their glorious progress, but 
that they will go on to follow his Almighty lead- 
ing, who seems to have thus covenanted with 
them ; that if the will and the endeavor shall be 
theirs, the performance and the perfecting shall be 
his. Whence only it is that I have not feared, 
though many wise men have miscarried in prais- 
ing great designs before the utmost event, because 
I see who is their assistant, who is their confed- 
erate, who hath engaged his omnipotent arm to 
support and crown with success their faith, their 
fortitude, their just and magnanimous actions, till 
he have brought to pass all that expected good 
which, his servants trust, is in his thoughts to 
bring upon this land in the full and perfect refor- 
mation of his Church 

I shall not decline to speak my opinion in the 
controversy next moved, " whether the people may 
be allowed for competent judges of a minister's 
ability." For how else can be fulfilled that which 
God hath promised, to pour out such abundance of 
knowledge upon all sorts of men in the times of 
the Gospel ? How should the people examine the 
doctrine which is taught them, as Christ and his 



FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 97 

apostles continually bid them do? How should 
they " discern and beware of false prophets, and 
try every spirit," if they must be thought unfit to 
judge of the minister's abilities? The apostles 
ever labored to persuade the Christian flock that 
they " were called in Christ to all perfectness in 
spiritual knowledge, and full assurance of under- 
standing in the mystery of God." 

We need not the authority of Pliny brought to 
tell us, the people cannot judge of a minister : yet 
that hurts not. For as none can judge of a paint- 
er or statuary but he who is an artist, that is, 
either in the practice or theory, which is often sep- 
arated from the practice, and judges learnedly 
without it ; so none can judge of a Christian teach- 
er but he who hath either the practice or the 
knowledge of Christian religion, though not so art- 
fully digested in him. And who almost of the 
meanest Christians hath not heard the Scriptures 
often read from his childhood, besides so many ser- 
mons and lectures, more in number than any stu- 
dent hath heard in philosophy, whereby he may 
easily attain to know when he is wisely taught, 
and when weakly ? whereof, three ways I remem- 
ber are set down in Scripture ; the one is to read 
often that best of books written to this purpose, 
that not the wise only, but the simple and igno- 
rant, may learn by them ; the other way to know 
of a minister is, by the life he leads, whereof the 
5 G 



98 FROM AN APOLOGY 

meanest understanding may be apprehensive. 
The last way to judge aright in this point is, when 
he who judges, lives a Christian life himself. 
Which of these three will the confuter affirm to 
exceed the capacity of a plain artisan ? And what 
reason then is there left, wherefore he should be 
denied his voice in the election of his minister, as 
not thought a competent discerner ? . . . . 

For me, readers, although I cannot say that I 
am utterly untrained in those rules which best 
rhetoricians have given, or unacquainted with 
those examples which the prime authors of elo- 
quence have written in any learned tongue ; yet 
true eloquence I find to be none, but the serious 
and hearty love of truth : and that whose mind so- 
ever is fully possessed with a fervent desire to 
know good things, and with the dearest charity to 
infuse the knowledge of them into others, when 
such a man would speak, his words, (by what I 
can express,) like so many nimble and airy servi- 
tors, trip about him at command, and in well-or- 
dered files, as he would wish, fall aptly into their 
own places 

Therefore must the ministers of Christ not be 
over rich or great in the world, because their call- 
ing is spiritual, not secular ; because they have a 
special warfare, which is not to be entangled with 
many impediments ; because their master, Christ, 
gave them this precept, and set them this ex- 
ample, told them this was the mystery of his 



FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 



99 



coming, by mean things and persons to subdue 
mighty ones ; and lastly, because a middle es- 
tate is most proper to the office of teaching, 
whereas higher dignity teaches far less, and 
blinds the teacher. 






FROM THE 

TRACTATE ON EDUCATION. 

AM long since persuaded, Master Hart- 
lib, that to say or do aught worth mem- 
ory and imitation, no purpose or respect 
should sooner move us than simply the 

love of God, and of mankind 

The end then of learning is to repair the ruins 
of our first parents by regaining to know God 
aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to 
imitate him, to be like him, as we may the nearest 
by possessing our souls of true virtue, which being 
united to the heavenly grace of faith, makes up the 
highest perfection. But because our understanding 
cannot in this body found itself but on sensible 
things, nor arrive so clearly to the knowledge of 
God and things invisible, as by orderly conning over 
the visible and inferior creature, the same method is 
necessarily to be followed in all discreet teaching. 
And seeing every nation affords not experience and 
tradition enough for all kinds of learning, therefore 
we are chiefly taught the languages of those peo- 



FROM THE TRACTATE ON EDUCATION. 101 

pie who have at any time been most industrious 
after wisdom ; so that language is but the instru- 
ment conveying to us things useful to be known. 
And though a linguist should pride himself to have 
all the tongues that Babel cleft the world into, yet 
if he have not studied the solid things in them, as 
well as the words and lexicons, he were nothing so 
much to be esteemed a learned man, as any yeo- 
man or tradesman competently wise in his mother 
dialect only. 

Hence appear the many mistakes which have 
made learning generally so unpleasing and so un- 
successful ; first, we do amiss to spend seven or 
eight years merely in scraping together so much 
miserable Latin and Greek, as might be learned 
otherwise easily and delightfully in one year. And 
that which casts our proficiency therein so much 
behind, is our time lost partly in too oft idle vacan- 
cies given both to schools and universities ; partly in 
a preposterous exaction, forcing the empty wits of 
children to compose themes, verses, and orations, 
which are the acts of ripest judgment, and the fi- 
nal work of a head filled by long reading and observ- 
ing, with elegant maxims and copious invention. 
These are not matters to be wrung from poor strip- 
lings, like blood out of the nose, or the plucking of 
untimely fruit. Besides the ill habit which they 
get of wretched barbarizing against the Latin and 
Greek idiom, with their untutored Anglicisms, 
odious to be read, yet not to be avoided without a 



102 FROM THE TRACTATE 

well-continued and judicious conversing among 
pure authors digested, which they scarce taste. 
Whereas, if after some preparatory grounds of 
speech by their certain forms got into memory, 
they were led to the praxis thereof in some chosen 
short book, lessoned thoroughly to them, they might 
then forthwith proceed to learn the substance of 
good things, and arts in due order, which would 
bring the whole language quickly into their power. 
This I take to be the most rational and most profit- 
able way of learning languages, and whereby we 
may best hope to give account to God of our youth 
spent herein. 

And for the usual method of teaching arts, I 
deem it to be an old error of universities, not yet 
well recovered from the scholastic grossness of 
barbarous ages, that instead of beginning with arts 
most easy, (and those be such as are most obvious 
to the sense,) they present their young unmatric- 
ulated novices, at first coming, with the most in- 
tellective abstractions of logic and metaphysics ; so 
that they having but newly left those grammatic 
flats and shallows, where they stuck unreasonably 
to learn a few words with lamentable construction, 
and now on the sudden transported under another 
climate, to be tossed and turmoiled with their un- 
ballasted wits in fathomless and unquiet deeps of 
controversy, do for the most part grow into hatred 
and contempt of learning, mocked and deluded all 
this while with ragged notions and babblements, 



ON EDUCATION. 103 

while they expected worthy and delightful knowl- 
edge ; till poverty or youthful years call them im- 
portunately their several ways, and hasten them, 
with the sway of friends, either to an ambitious 
and mercenary, or ignorantly zealous divinity: 
some allured to the trade of law, grounding their 
purposes not on the prudent and heavenly con- 
templation of justice and equity, which was never 
taught them, but on the promising and pleasing 
thoughts of litigious terms, fat contentions, and 
flowing fees; others betake them to state affairs, 
with souls so unprincipled in virtue and true gen- 
erous breeding, that flattery and court-shifts and 
tyrannous aphorisms appear to them the highest 
points of wisdom; instilling their barren hearts 
with a conscientious slavery ; if, as I rather think, 
it be not feigned. Others, lastly, of a more de- 
licious and airy spirit, retire themselves (knowing 
no better) to the enjoyments of ease and luxury, 
living out their days in feast and jollity; which in- 
deed is the wisest and safest course of all these, 
unless they were with more integrity undertaken. 
And these are the errors, and these are the fruits 
of misspending our prime youth at the schools and 
universities as we do, either in learning mere 
words, or such things chiefly as were better un- 
learned. 

I shall detain you now no longer in the demon- 
stration of what we should not do, but straight 
conduct you to a hillside, where I will point you 



104 FROM THE TRACTATE 

out the right path of a virtuous and noble educa- 
tion ; laborious indeed at the first ascent, but else 
so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospect, 
and melodious sounds on every side, that the harp 
of Orpheus was not more charming. I doubt not 
but ye shall have more ado to drive our dullest 
and laziest youth, our stocks and stubs, from the 
infinite desire of such a happy nurture, than we 
have now to hale and drag our choicest and hope- 
fullest wits to that asinine feast of sowthistles and 
brambles, which is commonly set before them as 
all the food and entertainment of their tenderest 
and most docible age. 

I call therefore a complete and generous edu- 
cation, that which fits a man to perform justly, 
skilfully, and magnanimously all the offices, both 
private and public, of peace and war 

But here the main skill and groundwork will 
be, to temper them such lectures and explana- 
tions, upon every opportunity, as may lead and 
draw them in willing obedience, inflamed with the 
study of learning and the admiration of virtue ; 
stirred up with high hopes of living to be brave 
men, and worthy patriots, dear to God, and fa- 
mous to all ages. That they may despise and 
scorn all their childish and ill-taught qualities, to 
delight in manly and liberal exercises, which he 
who hath the art and proper eloquence to catch 
them with, what with mild and effectual persua- 
sions, and what with the intimation of some fear, 



ON EDUCATION. 105 

if need be, but chiefly by bis own example, 
might in a short space gain them to an incredible 
diligence and courage, infusing into their young 
breasts such an ingenuous and noble ardor, as 
would not fail to make many of them renowned 
and matchless men 

By this time, years and good general precepts 
will have furnished them more distinctly with that 
act of reason which in ethics is called Proairesis ; 
that they may with some judgment contemplate 
upon moral good and evil. Then will be required 
a special reinforcement of constant and sound in- 
doctrinating, to set them right and firm, instruct- 
ing them more amply in the knowledge of virtue 
and the hatred of vice ; while their young and 
pliant affections are led through all the moral 
works of Plato, Xenophon, Cicero, Plutarch, La- 
ertius, and those Locrian remnants ; but still to be 
reduced in their nightward studies wherewith they 
close the day's work, under the determinate sen- 
tence of David or Solomon, or the Evangelists and 
apostolic Scriptures 

The interim of unsweating themselves regular- 
ly, and convenient rest before meat, may, both 
with profit and delight, be taken up in recreating 
and composing their travailed spirits with the sol- 
emn and divine harmonies of music, heard or 
learned ; either whilst the skilful organist plies his 
grave and fancied descant in lofty fugues, or the 
whole symphony with artful and unimaginable 

5* 



106 FROM THE TRACTATE ON EDUCATION. 

touches adorn and grace the well-studied chords 
of some choice composer ; sometimes the lute or 
soft organ-stop waiting on elegant voices, either to 
religious, martial, or civil ditties; which, if wise 
men and prophets be not extremely out, have a 
great power over dispositions and manners, to 
smooth and make them gentle from rustic harsh- 
ness and distempered passions 

Thus, Mr. Hartlib, you have a general view in 
writing, as your desire was, of that which at sev- 
eral times I have discoursed with you concerning 

the best and noblest way of education Only 

I believe that this is not a bow for every man to 
shoot in, that counts himself a teacher ; but will 
require sinews almost equal to those which Homer 
gave Ulysses; yet I am withal persuaded that it 
may prove much more easy in the assay, than it 
now seems at distance, and much more illustrious ; 
howbeit, not more difficult than I imagine, and 
that imagination presents me with nothing but what 
is very happy, and very possible, according to best 
wishes ; if God have so decreed, and this age have 
spirit and capacity enough to apprehend. 





FROM 



AREOPAGITICA. 




i|)HIS is not the liberty which we can 
* hope, that no grievance ever should 
arise in the commonwealth: that let 
no man in this world expect ; but 
when complaints are freely heard, deeply consid- 
ered, and speedily reformed, then is the utmost 
bound of civil liberty obtained that wise men look 

for 

I deny not, but that it is of greatest concern- 
ment in the Church and commonwealth, to have 
a vigilant eye how books demean themselves, as 
well as men; and thereafter to confine, imprison, 
and do sharpest justice on them as malefactors ; 
for books are not absolutely dead things, but do 
contain a progeny of life in them to be as active as 
that soul was whose progeny they are ; nay, they 
do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and ex- 
traction of that living intellect that bred them. I 
know they are as lively, and as vigorously produc- 
tive, as those fabulous dragon's teeth ; and being 



108 FROM AREOPAG1TICA 

sown, up and down, may chance to spring up armed 
men. And yet, on the other hand, unless wariness 
be used, as good almost kill a man as kill a good 
book : who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, 
God's image ; but he who destroys a good book, 
kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it 
were, in the eye. Many a man lives a burden to 
the earth ; but a good book is the precious life- 
blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured 
up on purpose to a life beyond life. It is true, no 
age can restore a life, whereof, perhaps, there is no 
great loss ; and revolutions of ages do not oft re- 
cover the loss of a rejected truth, for the want of 
which whole nations fare the worse. We should 
be wary, therefore, what persecution we raise 
against the living labors of public men, how we 
spill that seasoned life of man, preserved and 
stored up in books ; since we see a kind of homi- 
cide may be thus committed, sometimes a martyr- 
dom ; and if it extend to the whole impression, a 
kind of massacre, whereof the execution ends not in 
the slaying of an elemental life, but strikes at the 
ethereal and fifth essence, the breath of reason it- 
self; slays an immortality rather than a life 

Martin the Fifth, by his bull, not only prohibit- 
ed, but was the first that excommunicated the read- 
ing of heretical books ; for about that time Wick- 
liffe and Husse growing terrible, were they who 
first drove the papal court to a stricter policy of 
prohibiting. Which course Leo the Tenth and his 



FROM AREOPAGITICA. 109 

successors followed, until the Council of Trent 
and the Spanish Inquisition, engendering together, 
brought forth or perfected these catalogues and ex- 
purging indexes, that rake through the entrails of 
many an old good author, with a violation worse 
than any could be offered to his tomb. 

Nor did they stay in matters heretical, but any 
subject that was not to their palate, they either 
condemned in a prohibition, or had it straight into 
the new purgatory of an index. To fill up the 
measure of encroachment, their last invention was 
to ordain that no book, pamphlet, or paper should 
be printed (as if St. Peter had bequeathed them 
the keys of the press also as well as of Paradise) 
unless it were approved and licensed under the 
hands of two or three gluttonous friars 

And thus ye have the inventors and the original 
of book licensing ripped up and drawn as lineally 
as any pedigree. We have it not, that can be 
heard of, from any ancient state, or polity, or 
church, nor by any statute left us by our ancestors 
elder or later ; nor from the modern custom of any 
reformed city or church abroad ; but from the most 
anti-Christian council, and the most tyrannous in- 
quisition that ever inquired. Till then books were 
ever as freely admitted into the world as any other 
birth ; the issue of the brain was no more stifled 
than the issue of the womb : no envious Juno sat 
cross-legged over the nativity of any man's intel- 
lectual offspring : but if it proved a monster, who 



110 FROM AREOPAGITICA. 

denies but that it was justly burnt, or sunk into 
the sea ? But that a book, in worse condition than 
a peccant soul, should be to stand before a jury ere 
it be born to the world, and undergo yet in dark- 
ness the judgment of Radamanth and his col- 
leagues, ere it can pass the ferry backward into 
light, was never heard before, till that mysterious 
iniquity, provoked and troubled at the first en- 
trance of reformation, sought out new limboes and 
new hells wherein they might include our books 

also within the number of their damned 

Not to insist upon the examples of Moses, Dan- 
iel, and Paul, who were skilful in all the learning 
of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Greeks, which 
could not probably be without reading their books 
of all sorts, in Paul especially, who thought it no 
defilement to insert into Holy Scripture the sen- 
tences of three Greek poets, and one of them a 
tragedian ; the question was notwithstanding some- 
times controverted among the primitive doctors, 
but with great odds on that side which affirmed 
it both lawful and profitable, as was then evidently 
perceived, when Julian the Apostate, and subtlest 
enemy to our faith, made a decree forbidding 
Christians the study of heathen learning: for, 
said he, they wound us with our own weapons, and 
with our own arts and sciences they overcome us. 
And indeed the Christians were put so to their 
shifts by this crafty means, and so much in danger 
to decline into all ignorance, that the two Appolli- 



FROM AREOPAGITICA. m 

narii were fain, as a man may say, to coin all the 
seven liberal sciences out of the Bible, reducing it 
into divers forms of orations, poems, dialogues, 
even to the calculating of a new Christian gram- 
mar 

" To the pure, all things are pure " ; not only- 
meats and drinks, but all kind of knowledge, 
whether of good or evil: the knowledge cannot 
defile, nor consequently the books, if the will and 
conscience be not defiled. For books are as meats 
and viands are ; some of good, some of evil sub- 
stance ; and yet God in that unapocryphal vision 
said without exception, "Rise, Peter, kill and 
eat " ; leaving the choice to each man's discretion. 
Wholesome meats to a vitiated stomach differ little 
or nothing from unwholesome ; and best books to a 
naughty mind are not unapplicable to occasions of 
evil. Bad meats will scarce breed good nourish- 
ment in the healthiest concoction ; but herein the 
difference is of bad books, that they to a discreet 
and judicious reader serve in many respects to dis- 
cover, to confute, to forewarn, and to illustrate 

Good and evil we know in the field of this 
world grow up together almost inseparably ; and 
the knowledge of good is so involved and inter- 
woven with the knowledge of evil, and in so many 
cunning resemblances hardly to be discerned, that 
those confused seeds which were imposed upon 
Psyche as an incessant labor to cull out, and sort 
asunder, were not more intermixed. It was from 



112 FROM AREOPAGITICA. 

out the rind of one apple tasted, that the knowl- 
edge of good and evil, as two twins cleaving 
together, leaped forth into the world. And per- 
haps this is that doom which Adam fell into of 
knowing good and evil ; that is to say, of know- 
ing good by evil. 

As therefore the state of man now is ; what wis- 
dom can there be to choose, what continence to 
forbear, without the knowledge of evil ? He that 
can apprehend and consider vice with all her baits 
and* seeming pleasures, and yet abstain, and yet 
distinguish, and yet prefer that which is truly bet- 
ter, he is the true warfaring Christian. I cannot 
praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue unexercised 
and unbreathed, that never sallies out and seeks 
her adversary, but slinks out of the race, where 
that immortal garland is to be run for, not without 
dust and heat. Assuredly we bring not innocence 
into the world, we bring impurity much rather ; 
that which purines us is trial, and trial is by what 
is contrary. That virtue therefore which is but a 
youngling in the contemplation of evil, and knows 
not the utmost that vice promises to her followers, 
and rejects it, is but a blank virtue, not a pure ; 
her whiteness is but an excremental whiteness; 
-which was the reason why our sage and serious 
poet Spenser, (whom I dare be known to think a 
better teacher than Scotus or Aquinas,) describ- 
ing true temperance under the person of Guion, 
brings him in with his palmer through the cave 



FROM AREOPAGITICA. 113 

of Mammon, and the bower of earthly bliss, that 
he might see and know, and yet abstain. 

Since therefore the knowledge and survey of vice 
is in this world so necessary to the constituting of 
human virtue, and the scanning of error to the 
confirmation of truth, how can we more safely, and 
with less danger, scout into the regions of sin and 
falsity, than by reading all manner of tractates, 
and hearing all manner of reason ? . . . . 

If we think to regulate printing, thereby to rec- 
tify manners, we must regulate all recreations 'and 
pastimes, all that is delightful to man. No music 
must be heard, no song be set or sung, but what 
is grave and doric. There must be licensing dan- 
cers, that no gesture, motion, or deportment be 
taught our youth, but what by their allowance 
shall be thought honest ; for such Plato was pro- 
vided of. It will ask more than the work of 
twenty licensers to examine all the lutes, the vio- 
lins, and the guitars in every house ; they must 
not be suffered to prattle as they do, but must be 
licensed what they may say. And who shall si- 
lence all the airs and madrigals that whisper softness 
in chambers ? The windows also, and the balco- 
nies, must be thought on ; these are shrewd books, 
with dangerous frontispieces, set to sale : who shall 
prohibit them, shall twenty licensers ? The vil- 
lages also must have their visitors to inquire what 
lectures the bagpipe and the rebec reads, even to 
the ballatry and the gamut of every municipal fid- 



114 FROM AREOPAGITICA. 

dler ; for these are the countryman's Arcadias, 
and his Monte Mayors. 

Next, what more national corruption, for which 
England hears ill abroad, than household gluttony ? 
Who shall be the rectors of our daily rioting ? 
And what shall be done to inhibit the multitudes 
that frequent those houses where drunkenness is 
sold and harbored ? Our garments also should be 
referred to the licensing of some more sober work- 
masters, to see them cut into a less wanton garb, 
Who shall regulate all the mixed conversation of 
our youth, male and female together, as is the 
fashion of this country ? Who shall still appoint 
what shall be discoursed, what presumed, and no 
further ? Lastly, who shall forbid and separate all 
idle resort, all evil company ? These things will 
be, and must be ; but how they shall be least hurt- 
ful, how least enticing, herein consists the grave 
and governing wisdom of a state 

They are not skilful considerers of human things, 
who imagine to remove sin, by removing the mat- 
ter of sin ; for, besides that it is a huge heap, increas- 
ing under the very act of diminishing, though some 
part of it may for a time be withdrawn from some 
persons, it cannot from all, in such a universal 
thing as books are ; and when this is done, yet the 
sin remains entire. Though ye take from a covet- 
ous man all his treasure, he has yet one jewel left, 
ye cannot bereave him of his covetousness. Ban- 
ish all objects of lust, shut up all youth into the 



FROM ARE0PAGIT1CA. 115 

severest discipline that can be exercised in any 
hermitage, ye cannot make them chaste, that came 
not thither so : such great care and wisdom is re- 
quired to the right managing of this point. 

Suppose we could expel sin by this means ; look 
how much we thus expel of sin, so much we expel 
of virtue ; for the matter of them both is the 
same : remove that, and ye remove them both 
alike. This justifies the high providence of God, 
who, though he commands us temperance, justice, 
continence, yet pours out before us even to a pro- 
fuseness all desirable things, and gives us minds 
that can wander beyond all limit and satiety. Why 
should we then affect a rigor contrary to the man- 
ner of God and of nature, by abridging or scant- 
ing those means, which books, freely permitted, are, 
both to the trial of virtue, and the exercise of 
truth ? 

It would be better done, to learn that the law 
must needs be frivolous, which goes to restrain 
things, uncertainly and yet equally working to 
good and to evil. And were I the chooser, a dram 
of well-doing should be preferred before many 
times as much the forcible hinderance of evil doing. 
For God sure esteems the growth and completing 
of one virtuous person, more than the restraint of 
ten vicious 

If therefore ye be loath to dishearten utterly 
and discontent, not the mercenary crew of false 
pretenders to learning, but the free and ingenuous 



116 FROM AREOPAGITICA. 

sort of such as evidently were born to study and 
love learning for itself, not for lucre, or any other 
end, but the service of God and of truth, and per- 
haps that lasting fame and perpetuity of praise, 
which God and good men have consented shall be 
the reward of those whose published labors advance 
the good of mankind : then know, that so far to dis- 
trust the judgment and the honesty of one who 
hath but a common repute in learning, and never 
yet offended, as not to count him fit to print his 
mind without a tutor and examiner, lest he should 
drop a schism, or something of corruption, is the 
greatest displeasure and indignity to a free and 

knowing spirit that can be put upon him 

How can a man teach with authority, which is 
the life of teaching ; how can he be a doctor in his 
book, as he ought to be, or else had better be 
silent, whenas all he teaches, all he delivers, is 
but under the tuition, under the correction of his". 
patriar$ial licenser, to blot or alter what precisely 
accords not with the hide-bound hufhor which he 
calls his judgment ? When every acute reader, 
upon the first sight of a pedantic license, will be 
ready with these like words to ding the book a 
quoit's distance from him : — "I hate a pupil 
teacher ; I endure not an instructor that comes to 
me under the wardship of an overseeing fist. I * 
know nothing of the licenser, but that I have his 
own hand here for his arrogance ; who shall war- 
rant me his judgment? " " The state, sir," replies 



FROM AREOPAGITICA. 117 

the stationer ; but has a quick return : — " The 
state shall be my governors, but not my critics ; 
they may be mistaken in the choice of a licenser, 
as easily as this licenser may be mistaken in an au- 
thor. This is some common stuff" : and he might 
add from Sir Francis Bacon, that " such author- 
ized books are but the language of the times." 
For though a licenser should happen to be judi- 
cious more than ordinary, which will be a great 
jeopardy of the next succession, yet his very office 
and his commission enjoins him to let pass nothing 
but what is vulgarly received already. 

Nay, which is more lamentable, if the work of 
any deceased author, though never so famous in 
his lifetime, and even to this day, comes to their 
hands for license to be printed, or reprinted, if 
there be found in his book one sentence of a ven- 

^turous edge, uttered in the height of zeal, (and 
' who knows whether it might not be the dictate of 
a divine spirit ?) yet, not suiting with every low 
decrepit humor of their own, though it were Knox 
himself, the reformer of a kingdom, that spake it, 
they will not pardon him their dash ; the sense of 
that great man shall to all posterity be lost, for the 
fearfulness, or the presumptuous rashness of a per- 

# functory licenser. And to what an author this vio- 
lence hath been lately done, and in what book, of 
greatest consequence to be faithfully published, I 
could now instance, but shall forbear till a more 
convenient season. Yet if these things be not re- 



118 FROM AREOPAGITICA. 

sented seriously and timely by them who have the 
remedy in their power, but that such ironmoulds 
as these shall have authority to gnaw out the 
choicest periods of exquisitest books, and to commit 
such a treacherous fraud against the orphan re- 
mainders of worthiest men after death, the more 
sorrow will belong to that hapless race of men, 
whose misfortune it is to have understanding. 
Henceforth let no man care to learn, or care to be 
more than worldly wise ; for certainly in higher 
matters to be ignorant and slothful, to be a com- 
mon steadfast dunce, will be the only pleasant life, 
and only in request. 

And as it is a particular disesteem of every know- 
ing person alive, and most injurious to the written 
labors and monuments of the dead, so to me it 
seems an undervaluing and vilifying of the whole 
nation. I cannot set so light by all the invention, 
the art, the wit, the grave and solid judgment which 
is in England, as that it can be comprehended in 
any twenty capacities, how good soever ; much less 
that it should not pass except their superintend- 
ence be over it, except it be sifted and strained 
with their strainers, that it should be uncurrent 
without their manual stamp. Truth and under- 
standing are not such wares as to be monopolized 
and traded in by tickets, and statutes, and stand- 
ards. We must not think to make a staple com- 
modity of all the knowledge in the land, to mark 
and license it like our broadcloth and our wool- 



FROM AREOPAGITICA. 119 

packs. What is it but a servitude like that im- 
posed by the Philistines, not to be allowed the 
sharpening of our own axes and coulters, but we 
must repair from all quarters to twenty licensing 
forges? .... 

Well knows he who uses to consider, that our 
faith and knowledge thrives by exercise, as well as 
our limbs and complexion. Truth is compared in 
Scripture to a streaming fountain ; if her waters 
flow not in a perpetual progression, they sicken 
into a muddy pool of conformity and tradition. A 
man may be a heretic in the truth ; and if he be- 
lieve things only because his pastor says so, or the 
assembly so determines, without knowing other rea- 
son, though his belief be true, yet the very truth 
he holds becomes his heresy. There is not any 
burden that some would gladlier post off to anoth- 
er, than the charge and care of their religion. 
There be, who knows not that there be ? of Protest- 
ants and professors, who live and die in as errant 
and implicit faith, as any lay Papist of Loretto. 

A wealthy man, addicted to his pleasure and to 
his profits, finds religion to be a traffic so entan- 
gled, and of so many piddling accounts, that of all 
mysteries he cannot skill to keep a stock going 
upon that trade. What should he do ? Fain he 
would have the name to be religious, fain he would 
bear up with his neighbors in that. What does 
he therefore, but resolves to give over toiling, and 
to find himself out some factor, to whose care and 



120 FROM AREOPAG1TICA. 

credit lie may commit the whole managing of his 
religious affairs ; some divine of note and estima- 
tion that must be. To him he adheres, resigns the 
whole warehouse of his religion, with all the locks 
and keys, into his custody ; and indeed makes the 
very person of that man his religion ; esteems his 
associating with him a sufficient evidence and com- 
mendatory of his own piety. So that a man may 
say his religion is now no more within himself, 
but is become a dividual movable, and goes and 
comes near him, according as that good man fre- 
quents the house. He entertains him, gives him 
gifts, feasts him, lodges him ; his religion comes 
home at night, prays, is liberally supped, and 
sumptuously laid to sleep ; rises, is saluted, and 
after the malmsey, or some well-spiced bruage, and 
better breakfasted than He whose morning appe- 
tite would have gladly fed on green figs between 
Bethany and Jerusalem, his religion walks abroad 
at eight, and leaves his kind entertainer in the shop 
trading all day without his religion. 

Another sort there be, who, when they hear that 
all things shall be ordered, all things regulated and 
settled, nothing written but what passes through 
the custom-house of certain publicans that have the 
tonnaging and poundaging of all free-spoken truth, 
will straight give themselves up into your hands, 
make them and cut them out what religion ye 
please : there be delights, there be recreations and 
jolly pastimes, that will fetch the day about from 



FROM AREOPAGITICA. 121 

sun to sun, and rock the tedious year as in a de- 
lightful dream. What need they torture their 
heads with that which others have taken so strict- 
ly, and so unalterably into their own purveying ? 
These are the fruits which a dull ease and cessa- 
tion of our knowledge will bring forth among the 
people. How goodly, and how to be wished were 
such an obedient unanimity as this ! What a fine 
conformity would it starch us all into ! Doubtless 
a stanch and solid piece of framework, as any Jan- 
uary could freeze together 

For if we be sure we are in the right, and do 
not hold the truth guiltily, which becomes not, if 
we ourselves condemn not our own weak and friv- 
olous teaching, and the people for an untaught and 
irreligious gadding rout ; what can be more fair, 
than when a man judicious, learned, and of a con- 
science, for aught we know as good as theirs that 
taught us what we know, shall not privily from 
house to house, which is more dangerous, but open- 
ly by writing, publish to the world what his opin- 
ion is, what his reasons, and wherefore that which 
is now thought cannot be sound ? Christ urged it 
as wherewith to justify himself, that he preached 
in public ; yet writing is more public than preach- 
ing ; and more easy to refutation if need be, there 
being so many whose business and profession mere- 
ly it is to be the champions of truth ; which if 
they neglect, what can be imputed but their sloth 
or inability? .... 



122 FROM AREOPAGITICA. 

There is yet behind of what I purposed to lay 
open, the incredible loss and detriment that this 
plot of licensing puts us to, more than if some ene- 
my at sea should stop up all our havens, and ports, 
and creeks ; it hinders and retards the importation 
of our richest merchandise, — truth : nay, it was 
first established and put in practice by Antichristian 
malice and mystery, or set purpose to extinguish, 
if it were possible, the light of reformation, and to 
settle falsehood ; little differing from that policy 
wherewith the Turk upholds his Alcoran, by the 
prohibiting of printing. It is not denied, but glad- 
ly confessed, we are to send our thanks and vows 
to heaven, louder than most of nations, for that 
great measure of truth which we enjoy, especially 
in those main points between us and the pope, with 
his appurtenances the prelates : but he who thinks 
we are to pitch our tent here, and have attained 
the utmost prospect of reformation that the mortal 
glass wherein we contemplate can show us, till we 
come to beatific vision, that man by this very opin- 
ion declares that he is yet far short of truth. 

Truth indeed came once into the world with her 
Divine Master, and was a perfect shape most glori- 
ous to look on : but when he ascended, and his 
Apostles after him were laid asleep, then straight 
arose a wicked race of deceivers, who, as that story 
goes of the Egyptian Typhon with his conspira- 
tors, how they dealt with the good Osiris, took the 
virgin Truth, hewed her lovely form into a thou- 



FROM AREOPAGITICA. 123 

sand pieces, and scattered them to the four winds. 
From that time ever since, the sad friends of Truth, 
such as durst appear, imitating the careful search 
that Isis made for the mangled body of Osiris, went 
up and down gathering up limb by limb still as 
they could find them. "We have not yet found 
them all, lords and commons, nor ever shall do, 
till her Master's second coming ; he shall bring to- 
gether every joint and member, and shall mould 
them into an immortal feature of loveliness and 
perfection. Suffer not these licensing prohibitions 
to stand at every place of opportunity forbidding 
and disturbing them that continue seeking, that 
continue to do our obsequies to the torn body of 
our martyred saint. 

We boast our light : but if we look not wisely 
on the sun itself, it smites us into darkness. Who 
can discern those planets that are oft combust, 
and those stars of brightest magnitude that rise 
and set with the sun, until the opposite motion of 
their orbs bring them to such a place in the firma- 
ment where they may be seen evening or morn- 
ing ? The light which we have gained was given 
us, not to be ever staring on, but by it to discover 
onward things more remote from our knowledge. 

To be still searching what we know not, by what 
we know, still closing up truth to truth as we find 
it (for all her body is homogeneal and proportional), 
this is the golden rule in theology as well as in 



124 FROM ARE0PAG1TICA. 

arithmetic, and makes up the best harmony in a 
church ; not the forced and outward union of cold, 
and neutral, and inwardly divided minds 

Now once again by all concurrence of signs, and 
by the general instinct of holy and devout men, as 
they daily and solemnly express their thoughts, God 
is decreeing to begin some new and great period in 
his Church, even to the reforming of reformation 
itself; what does he then but reveal himself to his 
servants, and, as his manner is, first to his English- 
men ? I say, as his manner is, first to us, though 
we mark not the method of his counsels, and are 
unworthy. Behold now this vast city, a city of 
refuge, the mansion-house of liberty, encompassed 
and surrounded with his protection ; the shop of 
war hath not there more anvils and hammers work- 
ing, to fashion out the plates and instruments of 
armed justice in defence of beleaguered truth, than 
there be pens and heads there, sitting by their 
studious lamps, musing, searching, revolving new 
notions and ideas wherewith to present, as with 
their homage and their fealty, the approaching 
reformation : others as fast reading, trying all 
things, assenting to the force of reason and con- 
vincement. 

What could a man require more from a nation 
so pliant and so prone to seek after knowledge? 
What wants there to such a towardly and pregnant 
soil, but wise and faithful laborers, to make a know- 
ing people, a nation of prophets, of sages, and of 



FR OM ARE OP A GITICA. 1 25 

worthies ? We reckon more than five months yet 
to harvest ; there need not be five weeks, had we 
but eyes to lift up, the fields are white already. 
Where there is much desire to learn, there of 
necessity will be much arguing, much writing, 
many opinions ; for opinion in good men is but 
knowledge in the making. Under these fantastic 
terrors of sect and schism, we wrong the earnest 
and zealous thirst after knowledge and understand- 
ing, which God hath stirred up in this city. What 
some lament of, we rather should rejoice at, should 
rather praise this pious forwardness among men, to 
reassume the ill-deputed care of their religion into 
their own hands again. A little generous pru- 
dence, a little forbearance of one another, and 
some grain of charity might win all these diligen- 
cies to join and unite into one general and brotherly 
search after truth; could we but forego this pre- 
latical tradition of crowding free consciences and 
Christian liberties into canons and precepts of men. 
I doubt not, if some great and worthy stranger 
should come among us, wise to discern the mould 
and temper of a people, and how to govern it, 
observing the high hopes and aims, the diligent 
alacrity of our extended thoughts and reasonings 
in the pursuance of truth and freedom, but that he 
would cry out as Pyrrhus did, admiring the Roman 
docility and courage, " If such were my Epirots, I 
would not despair the greatest design that could be 
attempted to make a church or kingdom happy." 



126 FROM AREOPAGITICA. 

Yet these are the men cried out against for schis- 
matics and sectaries, as if, while the temple of the 
Lord was building, some cutting, some squaring 
the marble, others hewing the cedars, there should 
be a sort of irrational men, who could not consider 
there must be many schisms and many dissections 
made in the quarry and in the timber ere the 
house of God can be built. And when every stone 
is laid artfully together, it cannot be united into a 
continuity, it can but be contiguous in this world : 
neither can every piece of the building be of one 
form ; nay, rather the perfection consists in this, 
that out of many moderate varieties and brotherly 
dissimilitudes that are not vastly disproportional, 
arises the goodly and the graceful symmetry that 
commends the whole pile and structure. 

Let us therefore be more considerate builders, 
more wise in spiritual architecture, when great 
reformation is expected. For now the time seems 
come, wherein Moses, the great prophet, may sit 
in heaven rejoicing to see that memorable and 
glorious wish of his fulfilled, when not only our 
seventy elders, but all the Lord's people, are be- 
come prophets. No marvel then though some 
men, and some good men too perhaps, but young 
in goodness, as Joshua then was, envy them. 
They fret, and out of their own weakness are in 
agony, lest these divisions and subdivisions will 
undo us. The adversary again applauds, and waits 
the hour : when they have branched themselves 



FROM AREOPAGITICA. 127 

out, saith he, small enough into parties and par- 
titions, then will be our time. Fool ! he sees not 
the firm root, out of which we all grow, though 
into branches ; nor will beware, until he see our 
small divided maniples cutting through at every 
angle of his ill-united and unwieldy brigade. And 
that we are to hope better of all these supposed 
sects and schisms, and that we shall not need that 
solicitude, honest perhaps, though over-timorous, of 
them that vex in this behalf, but shall laugh in the 
end at those malicious applauders of our differences, 
I have these reasons to persuade me. 

First, when a city shall be as it were besieged 
and blocked about, her navigable river infested, 
inroads and incursions round, defiance and battle 
oft rumored to be marching up, even to her walls 
and suburb trenches ; that then the people, or the 
greater part, more than at other times, wholly 
taken up with the study of highest and most im- 
portant matters to be reformed, should be disputing, 
reasoning, reading, inventing, discoursing, even to 
a rarity and admiration, things not before discoursed 
or written of, argues first a singular good will, 
contentedness, and confidence in your prudent 
foresight, and safe government, lords and com- 
mons ; and from thence derives itself to a gallant 
bravery and well-grounded contempt of their ene- 
mies, as if there were no small number of as great 
spirits among us, as his was who, when Rome was 
nigh besieged by Hannibal, being in the city, 



128 FROM AREOPAGITICA. 

bought that piece of ground, at no cheap rate, 
whereon Hannibal himself encamped his own 
regiment. 

Next it is a lively and cheerful presage of our 
happy success and victory. For as in a body when 
the blood is fresh, the spirits pure and vigorous, 
not only to vital, but to rational faculties, and those 
in the acutest and the pertest operations of wit and 
subtlety, it argues in what good plight and consti- 
tution the body is ; so when the cheerfulness of 
the people is so sprightly up, as that it has not only 
wherewith to guard well its own freedom and 
safety, but to spare, and to bestow upon the sol- 
idest and sublimest points of controversy and new 
invention, it betokens us not degenerated, nor 
drooping to a fatal decay, by casting off the old 
and wrinkled skin of corruption to outlive these 
pangs, and wax young again, entering the glorious 
ways of truth and prosperous virtue, destined to 
become great and honorable in these latter ages. 
Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant 
nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, 
and shaking her invincible locks: methinks I see 
her as an eagle mewing her mighty youth, and 
kindling her undazzled eyes at the full midday 
beam ; purging and unsealing her long-abused 
sight at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance ; 
while the whole noise of timorous and flocking 
birds, with those also that love the twilight, flutter 
about, amazed at what she means, and in their 



FROM AREOPAGITICA. 129 

envious gabble would prognosticate a year of sects 
and schisms 

The temple of Janus, with his two controversial 
faces, might now not unsignificantly be set open. 
And though all the winds of doctrine were let 
loose to play upon the earth, so truth be in the 
field, we do injuriously by licensing and pro- 
hibiting to misdoubt her strength. Let her and 
falsehood grapple ; who ever knew truth put to the 
worse, in a free and open encounter ? Her con- 
futing is the best and surest suppressing 

When a man hath been laboring the hardest labor 
in the deep mines of knowledge, hath furnished 
out his findings in all their equipage, drawn forth 
his reasons as it were a battle ranged, scattered 
and defeated all objections in his way, calls out his 
adversary into the plain, offers him the advantage 
of wind and sun, if he please, only that he may 
try the matter by dint of argument ; for his oppo- 
nents then to skulk, to lay ambushments, to keep 
a narrow bridge of licensing where the challenger 
should pass, though it be valor enough in soldier- 
ship, is but weakness and cowardice in the wars of 
truth. For who knows not that truth is strong, 
next to the Almighty ; she needs no policies, nor 
stratagems, nor licensings to make her victorious ; 
those are the shifts and the defences that error 
uses against her power : give her but room, and do 
not bind her when she sleeps, for then she speaks 
not true, as the old Proteus did, who spake ora- 



130 FROM AREOPAGITICA. 

cles only when he was caught and bound, but then 
rather she turns herself into all shapes except her 
own, and perhaps tunes her voice according to the 
time, as Micaiah did before Ahab, until she be ad- 
jured into her own likeness 

In the mean wjhile, if any one would write, and 
bring his helpful hand to the slow-moving reforma- 
tion which we labor under, if truth have spoken to 
him before others, or but seemed at least to speak, 
who hath so bejesuited us, that we should trouble 
that man with asking license to do so worthy a 
deed ; and not consider this, that if it come to pro- 
hibiting, there is not aught more likely to be pro- 
hibited than truth itself: whose first appearance to 
our eyes, bleared and dimmed with prejudice and 
custom, is more unsightly and unplausible than 
many errors ; even as the person is of many a 
great man slight and contemptible to see to 

When God shakes a kingdom, with strong and 
healthful commotions, to a general reforming, it is 
not untrue that many sectaries and false teachers 
are then busiest in seducing. 

But yet more true it is, that God then raises to 
his own work men of rare abilities, and more than 
common industry, not only to look back and revive 
what hath been taught heretofore, but to gain fur- 
ther, and to go on some new enlightened steps in 
the discovery of truth. For such is the order of 
God's enlightening his Church, to dispense and deal 
out by degrees his beam, so as our earthly eyes 



FROM AREOPAGITICA. 131 

may best sustain it. Neither is God appointed and 
confined, where and out of what place these his 
chosen shall be first heard to speak ; for he sees 
not as man sees, chooses not as man chooses, lest 
we should devote ourselves again to set places and 
assemblies, and outward callings *of men. 




FROM 

THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF 
DIVORCE. 




F it were seriously asked, (and it would 
be no untimely question,) who of all 
teachers and masters, that have ever 
taught, hath drawn the most disciples 
after him, both in religion and in manners ? it 
might be not untruly answered, custom. Though 
virtue be commended for the most persuasive in her 
theory, and conscience in the plain demonstration 
of the spirit finds most evincing ; yet whether it 
be the secret of divine will, or the original blind- 
ness we are born in, so it happens for the most part 
that custom still is silently received for the best in- 
structor. Except it be, because her method is so 
glib and easy, in some manner like to that vision 
of Ezekiel rolling up her sudden book of implicit 
knowledge, for him that will to take and swallow 
down at pleasure ; which proving but of bad nour- 
ishment in the concoction, as it was heedless in the 
devouring, puffs up unhealthily a certain big face 
of pretended learning, mistaken among credulous 



DOCTRINE OF DIVORCE. 133 

men for the wholesome habit of soundness and good 
constitution, but is indeed no other than that swoln 
visage of counterfeit knowledge and literature, 
which not only in private mars our education, but 
also in public is the common climber into every 
chair, where either religion is preached, or law re- 
ported ; filling each estate of life and profession 
with abject and servile principles, depressing the 
high and heaven-born spirit of man far beneath the 
condition wherein either God created him, or sin 
hath sunk him. To pursue the allegory, custom 
being but a mere face, as echo is a mere voice, rests 
not in her unaccomplishment, until by secret incli- 
nation she accorporate herself with error, who, be- 
ing a blind and serpentine body without a head, 
willingly accepts what he wants, and supplies what 
her incompleteness went seeking. Hence it is, 
that error supports custom, custom countenances 
error ; and these two between them would perse- 
cute and chase away all truth and solid wisdom out 
of human life, were it not that God, rather than 
man, once in many ages calls together the prudent 
and religious counsels of men, deputed to repress 
the encroachments, and to work off the inveterate 
blots and obscurities wrought upon our minds by 
the subtle insinuating of error and custom ; who, 
with the numerous and vulgar train of their follow- 
ers, make it their chief design to envy and cry 
down the industry of free reasoning, under the 
terms of humor and innovation ; as if the womb of 



134 FROM THE DOCTRINE AND 

teeming truth were to be closed up, if she presume 
to bring forth aught that sorts not with their un- 

chewed notions and suppositions 

He who shall endeavor the amendment of any- 
old neglected grievance in church or state, or in 
the daily course of life, if he be gifted with abilities 
of mind that may raise him to so high an under- 
taking, I grant he hath already much whereof not 
to repent him ; yet let me aread him, not to be the 
foreman of any misjudged opinion, unless his reso- 
lutions be firmly seated in a square and constant 
mind, not conscious to itself of any deserved blame, 
and regardless of ungrounded suspicions. For this 
let him be sure, he shall be boarded presently by 
the ruder sort, but not by discreet and well-nur- 
tured men, with a thousand idle descants and 
surmises. Who, when they cannot confute the 
least joint or sinew of any passage in the book ; 
yet God forbid that truth should be truth, because 
they have a boisterous conceit of some pretences in 
the writer. But were they not more busy and 
inquisitive than the Apostle commends, they would 
hear him at least, " rejoicing so the truth be 
preached, whether of envy or other pretence what- 
soever": for truth is as impossible to be soiled by 
any outward touch as the sunbeam ; though this 
ill hap wait on her nativity, that she never comes 
into the world but like a bastard, to the ignominy 
of him that brought her forth ; till time, the mid- 
wife rather than the mother of truth, have washed 



DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 135 

and salted the infant, declared her legitimate, and 
churched the father of his young Minerva, from 
the needless causes of his purgation 

This question concerns not us perhaps: indeed 
man's disposition, though prone to search after vain 
curiosities, yet when points of difficulty are to be 
discussed, appertaining to the removal of unreason- 
able wrong and burden from the perplexed life of 
our brother, it is incredible how cold, how dull, 
and far from all fellow-feeling we are, without the 
spur of self-concernment 

He who wisely would restrain the reasonable 
soul of man within due bounds, must first himself 
know perfectly, how far the territory and dominion 
extends of just and honest liberty. As little must 
he offer to bind that which God hath loosened, as 
to loosen that which he hath bound. The igno- 
rance and mistake of this high point hath heaped up 
one huge half of all the misery that hath been since 
Adam. In the Gospel we shall read a supercilious 
crew of masters, whose holiness, or rather whose 
evil eye, grieving that God should be so facile to 
man, was to set straiter limits to obedience than 
God hath set, to enslave the dignity of man, to 
put a garrison upon his neck of empty and over- 
dignified precepts : and we shall read our Saviour 
never more grieved and troubled than to meet with 
such a peevish madness among men against their 
own freedom 

The greatest burden in the world is superstition, 



136 FROM THE DOCTRINE AND 

not only of ceremonies in the Church, but of imagi- 
nary and scarecrow sins at home. What greater 
weakening, what more subtle stratagem against our 
Christian warfare, when besides the gross body of 
real transgressions to encounter, we shall be terri- 
fied by a vain and shadowy menacing of faults that 
are not ? When things indifferent shall be set to 
overfront us under the banners of sin, what wonder 
if we be routed, and by this art of our adversary 
fall into the subjection of worst and deadliest 
offences ? 

The superstition of the papist is, " Touch not, 
taste not," when God bids both; and ours is, 
" Part not, separate not," when God and charity 
both permits and commands. " Let all your things 
be done with charity," saith St. Paul; and his 
Master saith, " She is the fulfilling of the law." 
Yet now a civil, an indifferent, a sometime dis- 
suaded law of marriage, must be forced upon us to 
fulfil, not only without charity but against her. 
No place in heaven or earth, except hell, where 
charity may not enter : yet marriage, the ordinance 
of our solace and contentment, the remedy of our 
loneliness, will not admit now either of charity or 
mercy, to come in and mediate, or pacify the fierce- 
ness of this gentle ordinance, the unremedied lone- 
liness of this remedy. Advise ye well, supreme 
senate, if charity be thus excluded and expulsed, 
how ye will defend the untainted honor of your 
own actions and proceedings. He who marries, 



DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 137 

intends as little to conspire his own ruin, as he that 
swears allegiance : and as a whole people is in pro- 
portion to an ill government, so is one man to an 
ill marriage. If they, against any authority, cov- 
enant, or statute, may, by the sovereign edict of 
charity, save not only their lives but honest liber- 
ties from unworthy bondage, as well may he against 
any private covenant, which he never entered to 
his mischief, redeem himself from unsupportable 
disturbances to honest peace and just contentment. 
And much the rather, for that to resist the highest 
magistrate though tyrannizing, God never gave 
us express allowance, only he gave us reason, 
charity, nature and good example to bear us out ; 
but in this economical misfortune thus to demean 
ourselves, besides the warrant of those four great 
directors, which doth as justly belong hither, we 
have an express law of God, and such a law, as 
whereof our Saviour with a solemn threat forbade 
the abrogating. For no effect of tyranny can sit 
more heavy on the commonwealth than this house- 
hold unhappiness on the family. And farewell all 
hope of true reformation in the state, while such 
an evil as this lies undiscemed or unregarded in 
the house : on the redress whereof depends not 
only the spiritful and orderly life of our grown 
men, but the willing and careful education of our 
children. Let this therefore be new examined, 
this tenure and freehold of mankind, this native 
and domestic charter given us by a greater lord 



138 FROM THE DOCTRINE AND 

than that Saxon king the Confessor. Let the 
statutes of God be turned over, be scanned anew, 
and considered not altogether by the narrow in- 
tellectuals of quotationists and commonplaces, but 
(as was the ancient right of councils) by men of 
what liberal profession soever, of eminent spirit and 
breeding, joined with a diffuse and various knowl- 
edge of divine and human things ; able to balance 
and define good and evil, right and wrong, through- 
out every state of life ; able to show us the ways 
of the Lord straight and faithful as they are, not 
full of cranks and contradictions, and pitfalling dis- 
penses, but with divine insight and benignity meas- 
ured out to the proportion of each mind and spirit, 
each temper and disposition created so different 
each from other, and yet, by the skill of wise con- 
ducting, all to become uniform in virtue. To ex- 
pedite these knots, were worthy a learned and 
memorable synod; while our enemies expect to 
see the expectation of the Church tired out with 
dependencies and independencies, how they will 
compound and in what calends. Doubt not, wor- 
thy senators! to vindicate the sacred honor and 
judgment of Moses your predecessor, from the 
shallow commenting of scholastics and canonists. 
Doubt not after him to reach out your steady 
hands to the misinformed and wearied life of man ; 
to restore this his lost heritage, into the household 
state : wherewith be sure that peace and love, the 
best subsistence of a Christian family, will return 



DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 139 

home from whence they are now banished ; places 
of prostitution will be less haunted, the neighbor's 
bed less attempted, the yoke of prudent and manly 
discipline will be generally submitted to ; sober and 
well-ordered living will soon spring up in the com- 
monwealth. Ye have an author great beyond 
exception, Moses; and one yet greater, he who 
hedged in from abolishing every smallest jot and 
tittle of precious equity contained in that law, with 
a more accurate and lasting Masoreth, than either 
the synagogue of Ezra or the Galilaean school at 
Tiberias hath left us 



Many men, whether it be their fate or fond opin- 
ion, easily persuade themselves, if God would but 
be pleased awhile to withdraw his just punishments 
from us, and to restrain what power either the 
Devil or any earthly enemy hath to work us woe, 
that then man's nature would find immediate rest 
and releasement from all evils. But verily they 
who think so, if they be such as have a mind large 
enough to take into their thoughts a general sur- 
vey of human things, would soon prove themselves 
in that opinion far deceived. For though it were 
granted us by divine indulgence to be exempt from 
all that can be harmful to us from without, yet the 
perverseness of our folly is so bent, that we should 
never cease hammering out of our own hearts, as 
it were out of a flint, the seeds and sparkles of new 



140 FROM THE DOCTRINE AND 

misery to ourselves, till all were in a blaze again. 
And no marvel if out of our own hearts, for they 
are evil ; but even out of those things which God 
meant us, either for a principal good, or a pure 
contentment, we are still hatching and contriving 
upon ourselves matter of continual sorrow and per- 
plexity 

What thing more instituted to the solace and 
delight of man than marriage ? And yet the mis- 
interpreting of some Scripture, directed mainly 
against the abuses of the law for divorce given by 
Moses, hath changed the blessing of matrimony not 
seldom into a familiar and coinhabiting mischief; 
at least, into a drooping and disconsolate household 
captivity, without refuge or redemption : so un- 
governed and so wild a race doth superstition run 
us from one extreme of abused liberty into the 
other of unmerciful restraint What a ca- 
lamity is this ? and, as the wise man, if he were 
alive, would sigh out in his own phrase, what a 
" sore evil is this under the sun ! " All which we 
can refer justly to no other author than the canon 
law and her adherents, not consulting with charity, 
the interpreter and guide of our faith, but resting 
in the mere element of the text ; doubtless by the 
policy of the Devil to make that gracious ordinance 
become unsupportable, that what with men not 
daring to venture upon wedlock, and what with 
men wearied out of it, all inordinate license might 
abound. It was for many ages that marriage lay in 



DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 141 

disgrace with most of the ancient doctors, as a work 
of the flesh, almost a defilement, wholly denied to 
priests, and the second time dissuaded to all, as he 
that reads Tertullian or Jerome may see at large. 
Afterwards it was thought so sacramental, that no 
adultery or desertion could dissolve it ; and this is 
the sense of our canon courts in England to this day, 
but in no other Reformed Church else : yet there 
remains in them also a burden on it as heavy as 
the other two were disgraceful or superstitious, and 
of as much iniquity, crossing a law not only writ- 
ten by Moses, but charactered in us by nature, 
of more antiquity and deeper ground than marriage 
itself; which law is to force nothing against the 
faultless proprieties of nature, yet that this may be 
colorably done, our Saviour's words touching di- 
vorce are as it were congealed into a stony rigor, 
inconsistent both with his doctrine and his office ; 
and that which he preached only to the conscience 
is by canonical tyranny snatched into the compul- 
sive censure of a judicial court ; where laws are 
imposed even against the venerable and secret 
power of nature's impression, to love, whatever 
cause be found to loathe : which is a heinous bar- 
barism, both against the honor of marriage, the 
dignity of man and his soul, the goodness of 
Christianity, and all the human respects of civility. 

This therefore shall be the task and period of 
this discourse to prove, first, that other reasons of 



142 FROM THE DOCTRINE AND 

divorce, besides adultery, were by the law of 
Moses, and are yet to be allowed by the Christian 
magistrate as a piece of justice, and that the words 
of Christ are not hereby contraried. Next, that to 
prohibit absolutely any divorce whatsoever, ex- 
cept those which Moses excepted, is against the 
reason of law He therefore, who, by ad- 
venturing, shall be so happy as with success to light 
the way of such an expedient liberty and truth as 
this, shall restore the much-wronged and over-sor- 
rowed state of matrimony, not only to those mer- 
ciful and life-giving remedies of Moses, but, as 
much as may be, to that serene and blissful condi- 
tion it was in at the beginning, and shall deserve 
of all apprehensive men, (considering the troubles 
and distempers, which, for want of this insight 
have been so oft in kingdoms, in states, and fami- 
lies,) shall deserve to be reckoned among the pub- 
lic benefactors of civil and human life, above the 
inventors of wine and oil ; for this is a far dearer, 
far nobler, and more desirable cherishing to man's 
life, unworthily exposed to sadness and mistake, 
which he shall vindicate. Not that license, and 
levity, and unconsented breach of faith should here- 
in be countenanced, but that some conscionable 
and tender pity might be had of those who have 
unwarily, in a thing they never practised before, 
made themselves the bondmen of a luckless and 
helpless matrimony. In which argument, he 
whose courage can serve him to give the first on- 



DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 143 

set, must look for two several oppositions : the 
one from those who, having sworn themselves to 
long custom, and the letter of the text, will not 
out of the road ; the other from those whose gross 
and vulgar apprehensions conceit but low of mat- 
rimonial purposes, and in the work of male and 
female think they have all. Nevertheless, it shall 
be here sought by due ways to be made appear, 
that those words of God in the institution, promis- 
ing a meet help against loneliness, and those words 
of Christ, that " his yoke is easy and his burden 
light," were not spoken in vain : for if the knot of 
marriage may in no case be dissolved but for adul- 
tery, all the burdens and services of the law are 
not so intolerable. This only is desired of them 
who are minded to judge hardly of thus maintain- 
ing, that they would be still, and hear all out, nor 
think it equal to answer deliberate reason with 
sudden heat and noise ; remembering this, that 
many truths now of reverend esteem and credit, 
had their birth and beginning once from singular 
and private thoughts, while the most of men were 
otherwise possessed ; and had the fate at first to be 
generally exploded and exclaimed on by many vio- 
lent opposers : yet I may err perhaps in soothing 
myself, that this present truth revived will deserve 
on all hands to be not sinisterly received, in that it 
undertakes the cure of an inveterate disease crept 
into the best part of human society ; and to do this 
with no smarting corrosive, but a smooth and 



144 FROM THE DOCTRINE AND 

pleasing lesson, which received both the virtue to 
soften and dispel rooted and knotty sorrows, and 
without enchantment, if that be feared, or spell used, 
hath regard at once both to serious pity and up- 
right honesty ; that tends to the redeeming and re- 
storing of none but such as are the object of com- 
passion, having in an ill hour hampered themselves, 
to the utter despatch of all their most beloved com- 
forts and repose for this life's term. But if we 
shall obstinately dislike this new overture of un- 
expected ease and recovery, what remains but to 
deplore the frowardness of our hopeless condition, 
which neither can endure the estate we are in, nor 
admit of remedy either sharp or sweet ? Sharp we 
ourselves distaste ; and sweet, under whose hands 
we are, is scrupled and suspected as too luscious. 
In such a posture Christ found the Jews, who were 
neither won with the austerity of John the Bap- 
tist, and thought it too much license to follow free- 
ly the charming pipe of him who sounded and pro- 
claimed liberty and relief to all distresses ; yet truth 
in some age or other will find her witness, and shall 

be justified at last by her own children 

Lest therefore so noble a creature as man should 
be shut up incurably under a worse evil by an easy 
mistake in that ordinance which God gave him to 
remedy a less evil, reaping to himself sorrow while 
he went to rid away solitariness, it cannot avoid to 
be concluded, that if the woman be naturally so of 
disposition, as will not help to remove, but help to 



DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 145 

increase that same God-forbidden loneliness, which 
in time draws on with it a general discomfort and 
dejection of mind, not beseeming either Christian 
profession or moral conversation, unprofitable and 
dangerous to the commonwealth, when the house- 
hold estate, out of which must flourish forth the 
vigor and spirit of all public enterprises, is so ill- 
contented and procured at home, and cannot be 
supported; such a marriage can be no marriage, 
whereto the most honest end is wanting ; and the 
aggrieved person shall do more manly, to be ex- 
traordinary and singular in claiming the due right 
whereof he is frustrated, than to piece up his lost 
contentment by visiting the stews, or stepping to 
his neighbor's bed, which is the common shift in 
this misfortune ; or else by suffering his useful life 
to waste away, and be lost under a secret affliction 
of an unconscionable size to human strength. 
Against all which evils the mercy of this Mosaic 

law was graciously exhibited 

St. Paul saith, "It is better to marry than to 
burn." Marriage, therefore, was given as a rem- 
edy of that trouble : but what might this burning 
mean ? Certainly not the mere motion of carnal 
lust, not the mere goad of a sensitive desire : God 
does not principally take care for such cattle. What 
is it then but that desire which God put into Adam 
in Paradise, before he knew the sin of incontinence ; 
that desire which God saw it was not good that 
man should be left alone to burn in ; the desire 
7 j 



146 FROM THE DOCTRINE AND 

and longing to put off an unkindly solitariness by 
uniting another body, but not without a fit soul to 
his, in the cheerful society of wedlock ? Which, if 
it were so needful before the fall, when man was 
much more perfect in himself, how much more is 
it needful now against all the sorrows and casualties 
of this life, to have an intimate and speaking help, 
a ready and reviving associate in marriage ? . . . . 
As for that other burning, which is but as it were 
the venom of a lusty and over-abounding concoction, 
strict life and labor, with the abatement of a full 
diet, may keep that low and obedient enough ; but 
this pure and more inbred desire of joining to itself 
in conjugal fellowship a fit conversing soul (which 
desire is properly called love) "is stronger than 
death," as the spouse of Christ thought; "many 
waters cannot quench it, neither can the floods 
drown it." . . . . 

But all ingenuous men will see that the dignity 
and blessing of marriage is placed rather in the 
mutual enjoyment of that which the wanting soul 
needfully seeks, than of that which the plenteous 
body would joyfully give away. Hence it is that 
Plato in his festival discourse brings in Socrates 
relating what he feigned to have learned from the 
prophetess Diotima, how Love was the son of 
Penury, begot of Plenty in the garden of Jupiter. 
Which divinely sorts with that which in effect 
Moses tells us, that Love was the son of Loneli- 
ness, begot in Paradise by that sociable and helpful 



DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 147 

aptitude which God implanted between man and 
woman toward each other. The same, also, is that 
burning mentioned by St. Paul, whereof marriage 
ought to be the remedy : the flesh hath other mu- 
tual and easy curbs which are in the power of any 
temperate man. When, therefore, this original and 
sinless penury, or loneliness of the soul, cannot lay 
itself down by the side of such a meet and accept- 
able union as God ordained in marriage, at least in 
some proportion, it cannot conceive and bring forth 
love, but remains utterly unmarried under a former 
wedlock, and still burns, in the proper meaning of 
St. Paul. Then enters Hate ; not that hate that 
sins, but that which only is natural dissatisfaction, 
and the turning aside from a mistaken object: if 
that mistake have done injury, it fails not to dis- 
miss with recompense ; for to retain still, and not 
be able to love, is to heap up more injury. Thence 
this wise and pious law of dismission now defended 
took beginning : he, therefore, who, lacking of his 
due in the most native and humane end of mar- 
riage, thinks it better to part than to live sadly and 
injuriously to that cheerful covenant, (for not to be 
beloved, and yet retained, is the greatest injury to 
a gentle spirit,) he, I say, who therefore seeks to 
part, is one who highly honors the married life and 
would not stain it: and the reasons which now 
move him to divorce are equal to the best of those 
that could first warrant him to marry ; for, as was 
plainly shown, both the hate which now diverts 



148 FROM THE DOCTRINE AND 

him, and the loneliness which leads him still power- 
fully to seek a fit help, hath not the least grain of 
a sin in it, if he be worthy to understand him- 
self. .... 

Marriage is a covenant, the very being whereof 
consists not in a forced cohabitation, and counter- 
feit performance of duties, but in unfeigned love 
and peace : and of matrimonial love, no doubt but 
that was chiefly meant, which by the ancient sages 
was thus parabled ; that Love, if he be not twin 
born, yet hath a brother wondrous like him, called 
Anteros ; whom, while he seeks all about, his chance 
is to meet with many false and feigning desires, that 
wander singly up and down in his likeness: by 
them in their borrowed garb, Love, though not 
wholly blind, as poets wrong him, yet having but 
one eye, as being born an archer aiming, and that 
eye not the quickest in this dark region here below, 
which is not Love's proper sphere, partly out of 
the simplicity and credulity which is native to him, 
often deceived, embraces and consorts him with 
these obvious and suborned striplings, as if they 
were his mother's own sons ; for so he thinks them, 
while they subtilely keep themselves most on his 
blind side. But after a while, as his manner is, 
when soaring up into the high tower of his Apo- 
gseum, above the shadow of the earth, he darts out 
the direct rays of his then most piercing eyesight 
upon the impostures and trim disguises that were 
used with him, and discerns that this is not his 



DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 149 

genuine brother, as he imagined ; he has no longer 
the power to hold fellowship with such a personated 
mate : for straight his arrows lose their golden 
heads, and shed their purple feathers, his silken 
braids untwine, and slip their knots, and that 
original and fiery virtue given him by fate all on a 
sudden goes out, and leaves him undeified and de- 
spoiled of all his force ; till finding Anteros at last, 
he kindles and repairs the almost-faded ammunition 
of his deity by the reflection of a coequal and 
homogeneal fire. Thus mine author sung it to me : 
and by the leave of those who would be counted 
the only grave ones, this is no mere amatorious 
novel ; (though to be wise and skilful in these 
matters, men heretofore of greatest name in virtue 
have esteemed it one of the highest arcs, that hu- 
man contemplation circling upwards can make from 
the globy sea whereon she stands ;) but this is a 
deep and serious verity, showing us that love in 
marriage cannot live nor subsist unless it be mu- 
tual ; and where love cannot be, there can be left 
of wedlock nothing but the empty husk of an out- 
side matrimony, as undelightful and unpleasing to 

God as any other kind of hypocrisy 

As those priests of old were not to be long in 
sorrow 1 , or if they were, they could not rightly 
execute their function ; so every time Christian, in 
a higher order of priesthood, is a person dedicate 
to joy and peace, offering himself a lively sacrifice 
of praise and thanksgiving, and there is no Chris- 



150 FROM THE DOCTRINE AND 

tian duty that is not to be seasoned and set off with 

cheerishness 

That there is a hidden efficacy of love and hatred 
in man as well as in other kinds, not moral but 
natural, which, though not always in the choice, 
yet in the success of marriage will ever be most 
predominant : besides daily experience, the author 
of Ecclesiasticus, whose wisdom hath set him next 
the Bible, acknowledges, xiii. 16, " A man," saith 
he, " will cleave to his like." But what might be 
the cause, whether each one's allotted genius or 
proper star, or whether the supernal influence of 
schemes and angular aspects, or this elemental era- 
sis here below ; whether all these jointly or singly 
meeting friendly, or unfriendly in either party, I 
dare not, with the men I am like to clash, appear 
so much a philosopher as to conjecture. The an- 
cient proverb in Homer, less abstruse, entitles this 
work of leading each like person to his like, pecu- 
liarly to God himself: which is plain enough also 
by his naming of a meet or like help in the first 
espousal instituted ; and that every woman is meet 
for every man, none so absurd as to affirm. Seeing 
then there is a twofold seminary, or stock in nature, 
from whence are derived the issues of love and 
hatred, distinctly flowing through the whole mass 
of created things, and that God's doing ever is to 
bring the due likenesses and harmonies of his 
works together, except, when out of two contraries 
met to their own destruction, he moulds a third 



DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 151 

existence ; and that it is error, or some evil angel 
which either blindly or maliciously hath drawn 
together, in two persons ill embarked in wedlock, 
the sleeping discords and enmities of nature, lulled 
on purpose with some false bait, that they may 
wake to agony and strife, later than prevention 
could have wished, if from the bent of just and 
honest intentions beginning what was begun and 
so continuing, all that is equal, all that is fair and 
possible hath been tried, and no accommodation 
likely to succeed ; what folly is it still to stand 
combating and battering against invincible causes 
and effects, with evil upon evil, till either the best 
of our days be lingered out, or ended with some 
speeding sorrow ! . . . . 

If the law allow sin, it enters into a kind of cove- 
nant with sin ; and if it do, there is not a greater sin- 
ner in the world than the law itself. The law, to use 
an allegory something different from that in Philo 
Judaeus concerning Amalek, though haply more 
significant, the law is the Israelite, and hath this 
absolute charge given it, Deut. xxv. " To blot out 
memory of sin, the Amalekite, from under heaven, 
not to forget it." Again, the law is the Israelite, 
and hath this express repeated command, " to make 
no covenant with sin, the Canaanite," but to ex- 
pel him, lest he prove a snare. And to say 
truth, it were too rigid and reasonless to proclaim 
such an enmity between man and man, were it 
not the type of a greater enmity between law and 



152 FROM THE DOCTRINE AND 

sin. I speak even now, as if sin were condemned 
in a perpetual villanage never to be free by law, 
never to be manumitted : but sure sin can have no 
tenure by law, at all, but is rather an eternal out- 
law, and in hostility with law past all atonement ; 
both diagonal contraries, as much allowing one 
another, as day and night together in one hemis- 
phere. Or if it be possible, that sin with his 
darkness may come to composition, it cannot be 
without a foul eclipse and twilight to the law, 
whose brightness ought to surpass the noon 

If it were such a cursed act of Pilate, a subor- 
dinate judge to Caesar, overswayed by those hard 
hearts, with much ado to suffer one transgression 
of law but once ; what is it then with less ado to 
publish a law of transgression for many ages? 
Did God for this come down and cover the mount 
of Sinai with his glory, uttering in thunder those 
his sacred ordinances out of the bottomless treasures 
of his wisdom and infinite pureness, to patch up an 
ulcerous and rotten commonwealth with strict and 
stern injunctions, to wash the skin and garments 
for every unclean touch ; and such easy permis- 
sion given to pollute the soul with adulteries by 
public authority, without disgrace or question ? . . . . 

The hidden ways of his providence we adore 
and search not, but the law is his revealed will, 
his complete, his evident and certain will : herein 
he appears to us, as it were, in human shape, en- 
ters into covenant with us, swears to keep it, binds 






DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 153 

himself like a just lawgiver to his own prescrip- 
tions, gives himself to be understood by men, judges 
and is judged, measures and is commensurate to 
right reason ; cannot require less of us in one can- 
tie of his law than in another; his legal justice 
cannot be so fickle and variable, sometimes like a 
devouring fire, and by and by connivent in the 
embers, or if I may so say, oscitant and supine. 
The vigor of his law could no more remit, than the 
hallowed fire upon his altar could be let go out. 
The lamps that burned before him might need 

snuffing, but the light of his law never 

Whenas the doctrine of Plato and Chrysippus, 
with their followers, the academics and the stoics, 
who knew not what a consummate and most adorned 
Pandora was bestowed upon Adam, to be the nurse 
and guide of his arbitrary happiness and persever- 
ance, I mean, his native innocence and perfection, 
which might have kept him from being our true 
Epimetheus : and though they taught of virtue 
and vice to be both the gift of divine destiny, they 
could yet give reasons, not invalid, to justify the 
councils of God and fate from the insulsity of mor- 
tal tongues : that man's own free will self-corrupted, 
is the adequate and sufficient cause of his disobe- 
dience besides fate ; as Homer also wanted not to 
express, both in his Iliad and Odyssee. And Ma- 
nilius the poet, although in his fourth book he tells 
of some " created both to sin and punishment " ; 
yet without murmuring, and with an industrious 
7* 



154 FROM THE DOCTRINE AND 

cheerfulness, he acquits the Deity. They were 
not ignorant, in their heathen lore, that it is most 
godlike to punish those who of his creatures be- 
came his enemies with the greatest punishment ; 
and they could attain also to think, that the great- 
est, when God himself throws a man furthest from 
him ; which then they held he did, when he 
blinded, hardened, and stirred up his offenders, to 
finish and pile up their desperate work since they 
had undertaken it. To banish forever into a local 
hell, whether in the air or in the centre, or in that 
uttermost and bottomless gulf of chaos, deeper 
from holy bliss than the world's diameter multi- 
plied ; they thought not a punishing so proper and 
proportionate for God to inflict, as to punish sin 
with sin. Thus were the common sort of Gentiles 
wont to think, without any wry thoughts cast upon 
divine governance. And therefore Cicero, not in 
his Tusculan or Campanian retirements among the 
learned wits of that age, but even in the senate to 
a mixed auditory, (though he were sparing other- 
wise to broach his philosophy among statists and 
lawyers,) yet as to this point, both in his Oration 
against Piso, and in that which is about the answers 
of the soothsayers against Clodius, he declares it 
publicly, as no paradox to common ears, that God 
cannot punish man more, nor make him more mis- 
erable, than still by making him more sinful. Thus 
we see how in this controversy the justice of God 
stood upright even among heathen disputers 



DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 155 

But it was not approved. So much the worse 
that it was allowed ; as if sin had overmastered the 
word of God, to conform her steady and straight 
rule to sin's crookedness, which is impossible. Be- 
sides, what needed a positive grant of that which 
was not approved ? It restrained no liberty to 
him that could but use a little fraud ; it had been 
better silenced, unless it were approved in some 
case or other. But still it was not approved. Mis- 
erable excusers ! he who doth evil, that good may 
come thereby, approves not what he doth ; and yet 
the grand rule forbids him, and counts his damna- 
tion just if he do it. The sorceress Medea did not 
approve her own evil doings, yet looked not to be 
excused for that : and it is the constant opinion of 
Plato in Protagoras, and other of his dialogues, 
agreeing with that proverbial sentence among the 
Greeks, that " no man is wicked willingly." 
Which also the Peripatetics do rather distinguish 
than deny. What great thank then if any man, 
reputed wise and constant, will neither do, nor 
permit others under his charge to do, that which 
he approves not, especially in matter of sin ? but 
for a judge, but for a magistrate, the shepherd of 
his people, to surrender up his approbation against 
law, and his own judgment, to the obstinacy of 
his herd, what more unjudgelike, unmagistratelike, 
and in war more uncommanderlike ? Twice in a 
short time it was the undoing of the Roman state, 
first when Pompey, next when Marcus Brutus, 



156 FROM THE DOCTRINE AND 

had not magnanimity enough but to make so poor 
a resignation of what they approved, to what the 
boisterous tribunes and soldiers bawled for. Twice 
it was the saving of two of the greatest common- 
wealths in the world, of Athens by Themistocles 
at the seafight of Salamis, of Rome by Fabius 
Maximus in the Punic war ; for that these two 
matchless generals had the fortitude at home, 
against the rashness and the clamors of their own 
captains and confederates, to withstand the doing 
or permitting of what they could not approve in 
their duty of their great command. Thus far of 
civil prudence. But when we speak of sin, let us 
look again upon the old reverend Eli, who in his 
heavy punishment found no difference between the 
doing and permitting of what he did not approve. 
If hardness of heart in the people may be an ex- 
cuse, why then is Pilate branded through all mem- 
ory ? He approved not what he did, he openly 
protested, he washed his hands, and labored not a 
little ere he would yield to the hard hearts of a 
whole people, both princes and plebeians, importun- 
ing and tumulting even to the fear of a revolt 

The political law, since it cannot regulate vice, 
is to restrain it by using all means to root it out. 
But if it suffer the weed to grow up to any pleas- 
urable or contented height upon what pretext so- 
ever, it fastens the root, it prunes and dresses vice, 
as if it were a good plant. Let no man doubt 
therefore to affirm, that it is not so hurtful or dis- 



DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 157 

honorable to a commonwealth, nor so much to the 
hardening of hearts, when those worse faults pre- 
tended to be feared are committed, by who so 
dares under strict and executed penalty, as when 
those less faults tolerated for fear of greater, hard- 
en their faces, not their hearts only, under the pro- 
tection of public authority. For what less indig- 
nity were this, than as if justice herself, the queen 
of virtues, descending from her sceptred royalty, 
instead of conquering, should compound and treat 
with sin, her eternal adversary and rebel, upon ig- 
noble terms ? or as if the judicial law were like 
that untrusty steward in the Gospel, and instead of 
calling in the debts of his moral master, should 
give out subtile and sly acquittances to keep him- 
self from begging ? or let us person him like some 
wretched itinerary judge, who, to gratify his delin- 
quents before him, would let them basely break his 
head, lest they should pull him from the bench, and 
throw him over the bar. Unless we had rather 
think both moral and judicial, full of malice and 
deadly purpose, conspired to let the debtor Israel- 
ite, the seed of Abraham, run on about a bankrupt 
score, flattered with insufficient and ensnaring dis- 
charges, that so he might be haled to a more cruel 
forfeit for all the indulgent arrears which those 
judicial acquittances had engaged him in. No, 
no, this cannot be, that the law, whose integrity 
and faithfulness is next to God, should be either 
the shameless broker of our impunities, or the in- 



158 FROM THE DOCTRINE AND 

tended instrument of our destruction. The meth- 
od of holy correction, such as became the common- 
wealth of Israel, is not to bribe sin with sin, to 
capitulate and hire out one crime with another ; 
but with more noble and graceful severity than 
Popilius the Roman legate used with Antiochus, to 
limit and level out the direct way from vice to vir- 
tue, with straightest and exactest lines on either 
side, not winding or indenting so much as to the 
right hand of fair pretences. Violence indeed and 
insurrection may force the law to suffer what it 
cannot mend ; but to write a decree in allowance 
of sin, as soon can the hand of justice rot off. Let 
this be ever concluded as a truth that will outlive 
the faith of those that seek to bear it down 

God loves not to plough out the heart of our en- 
deavors with over-hard and sad tasks. God delights 
not to make a drudge of virtue, whose actions must 
be all elective and unconstrained. Forced virtue 
is as a bolt overshot, it goes neither forward nor 
backward, and does no good as it stands 

If any, therefore, hath been through misadven- 
ture ill engaged in this contracted evil, and finds 
the fits and workings of a high impatience frequent- 
ly upon him ; of all those wild words which men 
in misery think to ease themselves by uttering, let 
him not open his lips against the providence of 
Heaven, or tax the ways of God and his divine 
truth ; for they are equal, easy and not burden- 
some ; nor do they ever cross the just and reason- 



DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 159 

able desires of men, nor involve this our portion 
of mortal life into a necessity of sadness and mal- 
content, by laws commanding over the unreduci- 
ble antipathies of nature, sooner or later found, but 
allow us to remedy and shake off those evils into 
which human error hath led us through the midst 
of our best intentions, and to support our incident 
extremities by that authentic precept of sovereign 
charity, whose grand commission is to do and to 
dispose over all the ordinances of God to man, that 
love and truth may advance each other to everlast- 
ing. While we, literally superstitious, through 
customary faintness of heart, not venturing to 
pierce with our free thoughts into the full latitude 
of nature and religion, abandon ourselves to serve 
under the tyranny of usurped opinions ; suffering 
those ordinances which were allotted to our solace 
and reviving, to trample over us, and hale us into 
a multitude of sorrows, which God never meant us. 
And where he sets us in a fair allowance of way, 
with honest liberty and prudence to our guard, we 
never leave subtilizing and casuisting till we have 
straitened and pared that liberal path into a ra- 
zor's edge to walk on ; between a precipice of un- 
necessary mischief on either side, and starting at 
every false alarm, we do not know which way to 
set a foot forward with manly confidence and 
Christian resolution, through the confused ringing 

in our ears of panic scruples and amazements 

Hate is of all things the mightiest divider ; nay, is 



160 DOCTRINE OF DIVORCE. 

division itself. To couple hatred therefore, though 
wedlock try all her golden links, and borrow to her 
aid all the iron manacles and fetters of law, it does 
but seek to twist a rope of sand, which was a task 
they say that posed the Devil ; and that sluggish 
fiend in hell, Ocnus, whom the poems tell of, 
brought his idle cordage to as good effect, which 
never served to bind with, but to feed the ass that 
stood at his elbow. 




FROM 



TETRACHORDON 




EN of most renowned virtue have 
|[ sometimes by transgressing most tru- 
ly kept the law ; and wisest magis- 
trates have permitted and dispensed 
it ; while they looked not peevishly at the letter, 
but with a greater spirit at the good of mankind, 
if always not written in the characters of law, yet 
engraven in the heart of man by a divine impres- 
sion. This heathens could see, as the well-read 
in story can recount of Solon and Epaminondas, 
whom Cicero, in his first book of "Invention," 
nobly defends. " All law," saith he, " we ought 
to refer to the common good, and interpret by that, 
not by the scroll of letters. No man observes law 
for law's sake, but for the good of them for whom 
it was made." The rest might serve well to lec- 
ture these times, deluded through belly doctrines 
into a devout slavery. The Scripture also affords 
us David in the showbread, Hezekiah in the pass- 
over, sound and safe transgressors of the literal 



162 FROM TETRACHORDON. 

command, which also dispensed not seldom with 
itself; and taught us on what just occasions to do 
so : until our Saviour, for whom that great and 
godlike work was reserved, redeemed us to a state 
above prescriptions, by dissolving the whole law 

into charity 

No mortal nature can endure, either in the 
actions of religion, or study of wisdom, without 
sometime slackening the cords of intense thought 
and labor, which, lest we should think faulty, God 
himself conceals us not his own recreations before 
the world was built : " I was," saith the Eternal 
Wisdom, " daily his delight, playing always before 
him." And to him, indeed, wisdom is as a high 
tower of pleasure, but to us a steep hill, and we 
toiling ever about the bottom. He executes with 
ease the exploits of his omnipotence, as easy as 
with us it is to will ; but no worthy enterprise can 
be done by us without continual plodding and 
wearisomeness to our faint and sensitive abilities. 
We cannot, therefore, always be contemplative, or 
pragmatical abroad, but have need of some delight- 
ful intermissions, wherein the enlarged soul may 
leave off a while her severe schooling, and, like a 
glad youth in wandering vacancy, may keep her 
holidays to joy and harmless pastime; which, as 
she cannot well do without company, so in no 
company so well as where the different sex, in most 
resembling unlikeness, and most unlike resem- 
blance, cannot but please best, and be pleased in 



FROM TETRACHORDON. 163 

the aptitude of that variety. Whereof, lest we 
should be too timorous, in the awe that our flat 
sages would form us and dress us, wisest Solomon 
among his gravest proverbs countenances a kind 
of ravishment and erring fondness in the entertain- 
ment of wedded leisures; and in the Song of Songs, 
which is generally believed, even in the jolliest ex- 
pressions, to figure the spousals of the Church with 
Christ, sings of a thousand raptures between those 
two lovely ones far on the hither side of carnal 
enjoyment. By these instances, and more which 
might be brought, we may imagine how indulgently 
God provided against man's loneliness ; that he 
approved it not, as by himself declared not good ; 
that he approved the remedy thereof, as of his 
own ordaining, consequently good ; and as he 
ordained it, so doubtless proportionably to our 
fallen estate he gives it; else were his ordinance 
at least in vain, and we for all his gifts still empty 

handed 

This I amaze me at, that though all the superior 
and nobler ends both of marriage and of the mar- 
ried persons be absolutely frustrate, the matrimony 
stirs not, loses no hold, remains as rooted as the 
centre : but if the body bring but in a complaint 
of frigidity, by that cold application only this ada- 
mantine Alp of wedlock has leave to dissolve ; 
which else all the machinations of religious or civil 
reason at the suit of a distressed mind, either for 
divine worship or human conversation violated, 



164 FROM TETRACHORDON. 

cannot unfasten. What courts of concupiscence 
are these, wherein fleshly appetite is heard before 
right reason, lust before love or devotion ? They 
may be pious Christians together, they may be lov- 
ing and friendly, they may be helpful to each other 
in the family, but they cannot couple ; that shall 
divorce them, though either party would not. 
They can neither serve God together, nor one be 
at peace with the other, nor be good in the family 
one to other ; but live as they were dead, or live 
as they were deadly enemies in a cage together : 
it is all one, they can couple, they shall not divorce 
till death, no, though this sentence be their death. 
What is this besides tyranny, but to turn nature 
upside down, to make both religion and the mind 
of man wait upon the slavish errands of the body, 
and not the body to follow either the sanctity or 
the sovereignty of the mind, unspeakably wronged, 
and with all equity complaining ? what is this but 
to abuse the sacred and mysterious bed of marriage 
to be the compulsive sty of an ingrateful and malig- 
nant lust, stirred up only from a carnal acrimony, 
without either love or peace, or regard to any 
other thing holy or human ? This I admire, how 
possibly it should inhabit thus long in the sense of 
so many disputing theologians, unless it be the 
lowest lees of a canonical infection liver-grown to 
their sides, which, perhaps, will never uncling, 
without the strong abstersive of some heroic magis- 
trate, whose mind, equal to his high office, dares 



FROM TETRACHORDON. 165 

lead him both to know and to do without their 
frivolous case-putting 

All arts acknowledge, that then only we know 
certainly, when we can define; for definition is 
that which refines the pure essence of things from 
the circumstance 

For no other cause did Christ assure us that 
whatsoever things we bind or slacken on earth, are 
so in heaven, but to signify that the Christian ar- 
bitrement of charity is supreme decider of all con- 
troversy,-and supreme resolver of all Scripture, not 
as the pope determines for his own tyranny, but as. 
the Church ought to determine for its own true 

liberty I omit many instances, many proofs 

and arguments of this kind, which alone would 
compile a just volume, and shall content me here 
to have shown briefly, that the great and almost 
only commandment of the Gospel is, to command 
nothing against the good of man, and much more 
no civil command against his civil good. If we 
understand not this, we are but cracked cymbals, 
we do but tinkle, we know nothing, we do nothing, 
all the sweat of our toilsome st obedience will but 
mock us. And what we suffer superstitiously re- 
turns us no thanks 

In every commonwealth, when it decays, corrup- 
tion makes two main steps : first, when men cease 
to do according to the inward and uncompelled 
actions of virtue, caring only to live by the out- 
ward constraint of law, and turn the simplicity of 



166 FROM TETRACHORDON. 

real good into the craft of seeming so by law. . To 

this hypocritical honesty was Rome declined in 

that age wherein Horace lived, and discovered it 

to Quintius. 

" Whom do we count a good man, whom but he 
Who keeps the laws and statutes of the Senate 1 
Who judges in great suits and controversies? 
Whose witness and opinion wins the cause % 
But his own house, and the whole neighborhood 
Sees his foul inside through his whited skin." 

The next declining is, when law becomes now 
too strait for the secular manners, and those too 
loose for the cincture of law. This brings in false 
and crooked interpretations to eke out law, and 
invents the subtle encroachments of obscure tra- 
ditions hard to be disproved 

If these be the limits of law to restrain sin, who 
so lame a sinner but may hop over them more 
easily than over those Romulean circumscriptions, 
not as Remus did, with hard success, but with all 
indemnity ? Such a limiting as this were not worth 
the mischief that accompanies it. This law there- 
fore, not bounding the supposed sin, by permitting 
enlarges it, gives it enfranchisement. And never 
greater confusion, than when law and sin movo 
their landmarks, mix their territories, and corre- 
spond, have intercourse, and traffic together. When 
law contracts a kindred and hospitality with trans- 
gression, becomes the godfather of sin, and names 
it lawful ; when sin revels and gossips within the 
arsenal of law, plays and dandles the artillery of 



FROM TETRACHORDON. 167 

justice that should be bent against her, this is a 
fair limitation indeed. Besides, it is an absurdity 
to say that law can measure sin, or moderate sin : 
sin is not in a predicament to be measured and 
modified, but is always an excess. The least sin 
that is exceeds the measure of the largest law that 
can be good ; and is as boundless as that vacuity 
beyond the world. If once it square to the measure 
of law, it ceases to be an excess, and consequently 
ceases to be a sin ; or else law, conforming itself to 
the obliquity of sin, betrays itself to be not straight, 
but crooked, and so immediately no law. And 
the improper conceit of moderating sin by law will 
appear, if we can imagine any lawgiver so sense- 
less as to decree, that so far a man may steal, and 
thus far be drunk, that moderately he may cozen, 
and moderately commit adultery. To the same 
extent it would be as pithily absurd to publish, that 
a man may moderately divorce, if to do that be 
entirely naught. But to end this moot : the law 
of Moses is manifest to fix no limit therein at all, 
or such at least as impeaches the fraudulent abuser 
no more than if it were not set ; only requires the 
dismissive writing without other caution, leaves 
that to the inner man, and the bar of conscience. 
But it stopped other sins. This is as vain as the 
rest, and dangerously uncertain : the contrary to 
be feared rather, that one sin, admitted courteously 
by law, opened the gate to another. However, 
evil must not be done for good. And it were a 
fall to be lamented, and indignity unspeakable, if 



168 FROM TETRACHORDON. 

law should become tributary to sin, her slave, and 
forced to yield up into his hands her awful minis- 
ter, punishment ; should buy out our peace with 
sin for sin, paying, as it were, her so many Phil- 
istian foreskins to the proud demand of transgres- 
sion. But suppose it any way possible to limit sin, 
to put a girdle about that chaos, suppose it also 
good ; yet if to permit sin by law be an abomina- 
tion in the eyes of God, as Cameron acknowledges, 
the evil of permitting will eat out the good of lim- 
iting. For though sin be not limited, there can 
but evil come out of evil ; but if it be permitted 
and decreed lawful by divine law, of force then sin 
must proceed from the Infinite Good, which is a 
dreadful thought. But if the restraining of sin by 
this permission being good, as this author testifies, 
be more good than the permission of more sin by 
the restraint of divorce, and that God, weighing 
both these like two ingots, in the perfect scales of 
his justice and providence, found them so, and 
others, coming without authority from God, shall 
change this counterpoise, and judge it better to let 
sin multiply by setting a judicial restraint upon 
divorce which Christ never set ; then to limit sin 
by this permission, as God himself thought best to 
permit it, it will behove them to consult betimes 
whether these their balances be not false and 
abominable, and this their limiting that which 
God loosened, and their loosening the sins that 
he limited, which they confess was good to do: 
and were it possible to do by law, doubtless it 



FROM TETRACHORDON. 169 

would be most morally good ; and they so believ- 
ing, as we hear they do, and yet abolishing a law 
so good and moral, the limiter of sin, what are 
they else but contrary to themselves ? For they 
can never bring us to that time wherein it will not 
be good to limit sin, and they can never limit it 
better than so as God prescribed in his law 

The New Testament, though it be said originally 
writ in Greek, yet hath nothing near so many 
Atticisms as Hebraisms, and Syriacisms, which 
was the majesty of God, not filing the tongue of 
Scripture to a Gentilish idiom, but in a princely 
manner offering to them as to Gentiles and for- 
eigners grace and mercy, though not in foreign 
words, yet in a foreign style that might induce 
them to the fountains; and though their calling 
were high and happy, yet still to acknowledge 
God's ancient people their betters, and that lan- 
guage the metropolitan language 

For nature hath her zodiac also, keeps her great 
annual circuit over human things, as truly as the 
sun and planets in the firmament ; hath her anom- 
alies, hath her obliquities in ascensions and declina- 
tions, accesses and recesses, as blamelessly as they 
in heaven. And sitting in her planetary orb with 
two reins in each hand, one strait, the other loose, 
tempers the course of minds as well as bodies to 
several conjunctions and oppositions, friendly or 
unfriendly aspects, consenting oftest with reason, 
but never contrary. 
8 




FROM THE 

TENURE OF KINGS AND MAGIS- 
TRATES. 

BAD MEN FAVORABLE TO TYRANTS. 

F men within themselves would be gov- 
erned by reason, and not generally give 
up their understanding to a double 
tyranny, of custom from without, and 
blind affections within, they would discern better 
what it is to favor and uphold the tyrant of a nation. 
But, being slaves within doors, no wonder that 
they strive so much to have the public state con- 
formably governed to the inward vicious rule by 
which they govern themselves. For, indeed, none 
can love freedom heartily but good men ; the rest 
love not freedom but license, which never hath 
more scope, or more indulgence than under tyrants. 
Hence is it that tyrants are not oft offended, nor 
stand much in doubt of bad men, as being all 
naturally servile ; but in whom virtue and true 
worth most is eminent, them they fear in earnest, 
as by right their masters ; against them lies all 
their hatred and suspicion. Consequently, neither 



OF KINGS AND MA G1STRA TES. 171 

do bad men hate tyrants, but have been always 
readiest, with the falsified names of loyalty and 
obedience, to color over their base compliances. 

It is true, that most men are apt enough to civil 
wars and commotions as a novelty, and for a flash 
hot and active ; but through sloth or inconstancy, 
and weakness of spirit, either fainting ere their 
own pretences, though never so just, be half 
attained, or through an inbred falsehood and 
wickedness, betray, ofttimes to destruction with 
themselves, men of noblest temper joined with 
them for causes whereof they in their rash under- 
takings were not capable. If God and a good 
cause give them victory, the prosecution whereof 
for the most part inevitably draws after it the 
alteration of laws, change of government, down- 
fall of princes with their families ; then comes the 
task to those worthies which are the soul of that 
enterprise, to be sweat and labored out amidst the 
throng and noses of vulgar and irrational men. 
Some contesting for privileges, customs, forms, and 
that old entanglement of iniquity, their gibberish 
laws, though the badge of their ancient slavery. 
Others, who have been fiercest against their prince, 
under the notion of a tyrant, and no mean incen- 
diaries of the war against them, when God, out of 
his providence and high disposal hath delivered 
him into the hand of their brethren, on a sudden 
and in a new garb of allegiance, which their doings 



172 FROM THE TENURE OF 

have long since cancelled, they plead for him, pity 
him, extol him, protest against those that talk of 
bringing him to the trial of justice, which is the 
sword of God, superior to all mortal things, in 
whose hand soever by apparent signs his testified 
will is to put it 

JUSTICE AGAINST THE TYRANT. 

But who in particular is a tyrant, cannot be de- 
termined in a general discourse, otherwise than by 
supposition ; his particular charge, and the suffi- 
cient proof of it, must determine that : which I 
leave to magistrates, at least to the uprighter sort 
of them, and of the people, though in number less 
by many, in whom faction least hath prevailed 
above the law of nature and right reason, to judge 
as they find cause. But this I dare own as part 
of my faith, that if such a one there be, by whose 
commission whole massacres have been committed 
on his faithful subjects, his provinces offered to 
pawn or alienation, as the hire of those whom he 
had solicited to come in and destroy whole cities 
and countries ; be he king, or tyrant, or emperor, 
the sword of justice is above him ; in whose hand 
soever is found sufficient power to avenge the ef- 
fusion, and so great a deluge of innocent blood. 
For if all human power to execute, not accident- 
ally but intendedly, the wrath of God upon evil- 
doers without exception, be of God: then that 



KINGS AND MAGISTRATES. 173 

power, whether ordinary, or if that fail, extraordi- 
nary, so executing that intent of God, is lawful, 
and not to be resisted 



THE ORIGIN OF KINGLY GOVERNMENT. 

No man, who knows aught, can be so stupid to 
deny, that all men naturally were born free, being 
the image and resemblance of God himself, and 
were, by privilege above all the creatures, born to 
command, and not to obey : and that they lived so, 
till from the root of Adam's transgression falling 
among themselves to do wrong and violence, and 
foreseeing that such courses must needs tend to the 
destruction of them all, they agreed by common 
league to bind each other from mutual injury, and 
jointly to defend themselves against any that 
gave disturbance or opposition to such agreement. 
Hence came cities, towns, and commonwealths. 
And because no faith in all was found sufficiently 
binding, they saw it needful to ordain some author- 
ity that might restrain by force and punishment 
what was violated against peace and common right. 

This authority and power of self-defence and 
preservation being originally and naturally in 
eveiy one of them, and unitedly in them all ; for 
ease, for order, and lest each man should be his 
own partial judge, they communicated and de- 
rived either to one, whom for the eminence of his 
wisdom and integrity they chose above the rest, or 



174 FROM THE TENURE OF 

to more than one, whom they thought of equal de- 
serving: the first was called a king; the other, 
magistrates : not to be their lords and masters, 
(though afterward those names in some places 
were given voluntarily to such as had been 
authors of inestimable good to the people,) but 
to be their deputies and commissioners, to ex- 
ecute, by virtue of their intrusted power, that jus- 
tice, which else every man by the bond of nature 
and of covenant must have executed for himself, 
and for one another. And to him that shall con- 
sider well, why among free persons one man by 
civil right should bear authority and jurisdiction 
over another, no other end or reason can be imagi- 
nable. 



POPULAE CHECKS ON KINGLY POWEK. 

These for a while governed well, and with much 
equity decided all things at their own arbitrament ; 
till the temptation of such a power, left absolute 
in their hands, perverted them at length to injus- 
tice and partiality. Then did they, who now by 
trial had found the danger and inconveniences of 
committing arbitrary power to any, invent laws, 
either framed or consented to by all, that should 
confine and limit the authority of whom they 
chose to govern them : that so man, of whose 
failing they had proof, might no more rule over 
them, but law and reason, abstracted as much 






KINGS AND MAGISTRATES. 175 

as might be from personal errors and frailties. 
" While, as the magistrate was set above the peo- 
ple, so the law was set above the magistrate." 
When this would not serve, but that the law was 
either not executed, or misapplied, they were con- 
strained from that time, the only remedy left them, 
to put conditions and take oaths from all kings and 
magistrates at their first instalment, to do impartial 
justice by law: who, upon those terms and no 
other received allegiance from the people, that is 
to say, bond or covenant to obey them in execu- 
tion of those laws, which they, the people, had 
themselves made or assented to. And this oft- 
times with express warning, that if the king or 
magistrate proved unfaithful to his trust, the peo- 
ple would be disengaged. They added also coun- 
sellors and parliaments, not to be only at his beck, 
but, with him or without him, at set times, or at 
all times, when any danger threatened, to have 
care of the public safety 

KINGS ACCOUNTABLE TO LAW. 

To say kings are accountable to none but God, 
is the overturning of all law and government. 
For if they may refuse to give account, then all 
covenants made with them at coronation, all oaths 
are in vain, and mere mockeries ; all laws which 
they swear to keep, made to no purpose : for if 
the king fear not God, (as how many of them do 



176 FROM THE TENURE OF 

not,) we hold then our lives and estates by the " 
tenure of his mere grace and mercy, as from a god, 
not a mortal magistrate : a position that none but 
court-parasites or men besotted would maintain ! 
Aristotle, therefore, whom we commonly allow for 
one of the best interpreters of nature and morali- 
ty, writes in the fourth of his Politics, chap. x. that 
" monarchy unaccountable is the worst sort of tyr- 
anny, and least of all to be endured by free-born 
men." 

And surely no Christian prince, not drunk with 
high mind, and prouder than those pagan Caesars 
that deified themselves, would arrogate so unrea- 
sonably above human condition, or derogate so 
basely from a whole nation of men, his brethren, 
as if for him only subsisting, and to serve his glo- 
ry, valuing them in comparison of his own brute 
will and pleasure no more than so many beasts, or 
vermin under his feet, not to be reasoned with, but 
to be trod on ; among whom there might be found 
so many thousand men for wisdom, virtue, noble- 
ness of mind, and all other respects but the fortune 
of his dignity, far above him. Yet some would 
persuade us that this absurd opinion was King Da- 
vid's, because in the 51st Psalm he cries out to 
God, " Against thee only have I sinned " ; as if 
David had imagined, that to murder Uriah and 
adulterate his wife had been no sin against his 
neighbor, whenas that law of Moses was to tho 
king expressly, (Deut. xvii.,) not to think so high- 






KINGS AND MAGISTRATES. 177 

ly of himself above his brethren. David, there- 
fore, by those words, could mean no other, than 
either that the depth of his guiltiness was known 
to God only, or to so few as had not the will or 
power to question him, or that the sin against God 
was greater beyond compare than against Uriah. 
Whatever his meaning were, any wise man will 
see, that the pathetical words of a psalm can be 
no certain decision to a point that hath abun- 
dantly more certain rules to go by. 

How much more rationally spoke the heathen 
king Demophoon, in a tragedy of Euripides, than 
these interpreters would put upon King David ! "I 
rule not my people by tyranny, as if they were bar- 
barians ; but am myself liable, if I do unjustly, to 
suffer justly." Not unlike was the speech of Tra- 
jan, the worthy emperor, to one whom he made 
general of his prastorian forces : " Take this drawn 
sword," saith he, " to use for me if I reign well ; 
if not, to use against me." Thus Dion relates. 
And not Trajan only, but Theodosius, the youn- 
ger, a Christian emperor, and one of the best, 
caused it to be enacted, as a rule undeniable and 
fit to be acknowledged by all kings and emperors, 
that a prince is bound to the laws ; that on the au- 
thority of law the authority of a prince depends, 
and to the laws ought to submit. Which edict of 
his remains yet unrepealed in the Code of Justin- 
ian, (1. I. tit. 24,) as a sacred constitution to all 
the succeeding emperors. How can any king in 
8* L 



178 FROM THE TENURE OF 

Europe maintain and write himself accountable to 
none but God, when emperors in their own impe- 
rial statutes have written and decreed themselves 
accountable to law ? And indeed, where such ac- 
count is not feared, he that bids a man reign over 
him above law, may bid as well a savage beast. 

POWER OF CHANGE RESIDES WITH THE PEOPLE. 

Since the king or magistrate holds his authority 
of the people, both originally and naturally for 
their good, in the first place, and not his own, then 
may the people, as oft as they shall judge it for the 
best, either choose him or reject him, retain him 
or depose him, though no tyrant, merely by the 
liberty and right of free born men to be governed 
as seems to them best. This, though it cannot but 
stand with plain reason, shall be made good also by 
Scripture : (Deut. xvii. 14 :) " When thou art 
come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth 
thee, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like 
as all the nations about me." These words con- 
firm us that the right of choosing, yea of changing 
their own government, is by the grant of God 
himself in the people. And therefore when they 
desired a king, though then under another form of 
government, and though their changing displeased 
him, yet he that was himself their king, and re- 
jected by them, would not be a hinderance to what 
they intended, further than by persuasion, but that 



KINGS AND MAGISTRATES. 179 

they might do therein as they saw good, (1 Sam. 
viii.,) only he reserved to himself the nomination 
of who should reign over them. Neither did that 
exempt the king, as if he were to God only account- 
able, though by his especial command anointed. 
Therefore " David first made a covenant with the 
elders of Israel, and so was by them anointed 
king." (2 Sam. v. 3 ; 1 Chron. xi.) And Jehoi- 
ada the priest, making Jehoash king, made a cov- 
enant between him and the people. (2 Kings, xi. 
IT.) Therefore when Roboam, at his coming to 
the crown, rejected those conditions which the 
Israelites brought him, hear what they answer 
him : " What portion have we in David, or in- 
heritance in the son of Jesse ? See to thine own 
house, David." And for the like conditions not 
performed, all Israel before that time deposed Sam- 
uel ; not for his own default, but for the misgov- 
ernment of his sons. 



RIGHT OF TYRANNICIDE. 

We may from hence with more ease and force 
of argument determine what a tyrant is, and what 
the people may do against him. A tyrant, whether 
by wrong or by right coming to the crown, is he 
who, regarding neither law nor the common good, 
reigns only for himself and his faction: thus St. 
Basil, among others, defines him. And because 
his power is great, his will boundless and exor- 



180 FROM THE TENURE OF 

bitant, the fulfilling whereof is for the most part 
accompanied with innumerable wrongs and oppres- 
sions of the people, murders, massacres, rapes, 
adulteries, desolation, and subversion of cities and 
whole provinces ; look how great a good and hap- 
piness a just king is, so great a mischief is a tyrant ; 
as he the public father of his country, so this the 
common enemy. Against whom what the people 
lawfully may do, as against a common pest and 
destroyer of mankind, I suppose no man of clear 
judgment need go further to be guided than by 
the very principles of nature in him. 

But because it is the vulgar folly of men to 
desert their own reason, and, shutting their eyes, 
to think they see best with other men's, I shall 
show, by such examples as ought to have most 
weight with us, what hath been done in this case 
heretofore. The Greeks and Romans, as their 
prime authors witness, held it not only lawful, but 
a glorious and heroic deed, rewarded publicly with 
statues and garlands, to kill an infamous tyrant at 
any time without trial; and but reason, that he 
who trod down all law should not be vouchsafed 
the benefit of law. Insomuch that Seneca, the 
tragedian, brings in Hercules, the grand suppressor 
of tyrants, thus speaking : — 

" Victima haud ulla amplior 
Potest, magisquc opima mactari Jovi 
Quam rex iniquus." 

" There can be slain 
No sacrifice to God more acceptable 
Than an unjust and wicked king." 



KINGS AND MAGISTRATES. 181 

But of these I name no more, lest it be objected 
they were heathen ; and come to produce another 
sort of men, that had the knowledge of true re- 
ligion. Among the Jews this custom of tyrant- 
killing was not unusual. First, Ehud, a man whom 
God had raised to deliver Israel from Eglon, king 
of Moab, who had conquered and ruled over them 
eighteen years, being sent to him as an ambassador 
with a present, slew him in his own house. But 
he was a foreign prince, an enemy, and Ehud 
besides had special warrant from God. To the 
first I answer, it imports not whether foreign or 
native : for no prince so native but professes to 
hold by law ; which, when he himself overturns, 
breaking all the covenants and oaths that gave 
title to his dignity, and were the bond and alliance 
between him and his people, what differs he from 
an outlandish king, or from an enemy ? . . . . 

There is nothing that so actually makes a king 
of England, as rightful possession and supremacy 
in all causes both civil and ecclesiastical : and noth- 
ing that so actually makes a subject of England, 
as those two oaths of allegiance and supremacy, 
observed without equivocating, or any mental res- 
ervation. Out of doubt then, when the king shall 
command things already constituted in church or 
state, obedience is the true essence of a subject, 
either to do, if it be lawful, or if he hold the thing 
unlawful, to submit to that penalty which the law 
imposes, so long as he intends to remain a subject. 



182 FROM THE TENURE OF 

Therefore when the people, or any part of them, 
shall rise against the king and his authority, ex- 
ecuting the law in anything established, civil or 
ecclesiastical, I do not say it is rebellion, if the 
thing commanded though established be unlawful, 
and that they sought first all due means of redress ; 
(and no man is further bound to law ;) but I say 
it is an absolute renouncing both of supremacy and 
allegiance, which, in one word, is an actual and 
total deposing of the king, and the setting up of 
another supreme authority over them 

If then, their oaths of subjection broken, new 
supremacy obeyed, new oaths and covenant taken, 
notwithstanding frivolous evasions, have in plain 
terms unkinged the king, much more than hath 
their seven years' war, not deposed him only, but 
outlawed him, and defied him as an alien, a rebel 
to law, and enemy to the state, it must needs be 
clear to any man, not averse from reason, that hos- 
tility and subjection are two direct and positive 
contraries, and can no more in one subject stand 
together in respect of the same king, than one 
person at the same time can be in two remote 
places. Against whom therefore the subject is in 
act of hostility, we may be confident, that to him 
he is in no subjection : and in whom hostility takes 
place of subjection, for they can by no means con- 
sist together, to him the king can be not only no 
king, but an enemy. 

So that from hence we shall not need dispute, 



KINGS AND MAGISTRATES. 183 

whether they have deposed him, or what they have 
defaulted towards him as no king, but show mani- 
festly how much they have done towards the kill- 
ing him. Have they not levied all these wars 
against him, whether offensive or defensive, (for 
defence in war equally offends, and most prudently 
beforehand,) and given commission to slay, where 
they knew his person could not be exempt from 
danger? And if chance or flight had not saved 
him, how often had they killed him, directing their 
artillery, without blame or prohibition, to the very 
place where they saw him stand ? Have they not 
sequestered him, judged or unjudged, and con- 
verted his revenue to other uses, detaining from 
him, as a grand delinquent, all means of livelihood, 
so that for them long since he might have perished, 
or have starved ? Have they not hunted and pur- 
sued him round about the kingdom with sword and 
fire ? Have they not formerly denied to treat with 
him, and their now recanting ministers preached 
against him, as a reprobate incurable, an enemy to 
God and his Church, marked for destruction, and 
therefore not to be treated with ? Have they not 
besieged him, and to their power forbid him water 
and fire, save what they shot against him to the 
hazard of his life ? 



184 FROM THE TENURE OF 

RIGHTS AND POWERS OF A FREE NATION. 

But God, as we have cause to trust, will put 
other thoughts into the people, and turn them from 
giving ear or heed to these mercenary noisemakers, 
of whose fury and false prophecies we have enough 
experience ; and from the murmurs of new discord 
will incline them to hearken rather with erected 
minds to the voice of our supreme magistracy, call- 
ing us to liberty, and the flourishing deeds of a 
reformed commonwealth ; with this hope, that as 
God was heretofore angry with the Jews who 
rejected him and his form of government to choose 
a king, so that he will bless us, and be propitious 
to us, who reject a king to make him only our 
leader, and supreme governor, in the conformity, 
as near as may be, of his own ancient government ; 
if we have at least but so much worth in us to 
entertain the sense of our future happiness, and 
the courage to receive what God vouchsafes us ; 
wherein we have the honor to precede other na- 
tions, who are now laboring to be our followers. 

For as to this question in hand, what the people 
by their just right may do in change of government, 
or of governor, we see it cleared sufficiently besides 
other ample authority even from the mouths of 
princes themselves. And surely they that shall 
boast, as we do, to be a free nation, and not have 
in themselves the power to remove or abolish any 
governor supreme, or subordinate, with the gov- 



KINGS AND MAGISTRATES. 185 

eminent itself upon urgent causes, may please their 
fancy with a ridiculous and painted freedom, fit to 
cozen babies; but we are indeed under tyranny 
and servitude, as wanting that power, which is the 
root and source of all liberty, to dispose and econ- 
omize in the land which God hath given them, as 
masters of family in their own house and free in- 
heritance. Without which natural and essential 
power of a free nation, though bearing high their 
heads, they can in due esteem be thought no better 
than slaves and vassals born, in the tenure and 
occupation of another inheriting lord ; whose gov- 
ernment, though not illegal, or intolerable, hangs 
over them as a lordly scourge, not as a free govern- 
ment ; and therefore to be abrogated. 

How much more justly then may they fling off 
tyranny, or tyrants ; who being once deposed can 
be no more than private men, as subject to the 
reach of justice and arraignment as any other 
transgressors ? And certainly if men, not to speak 
of heathen, both wise and religious, have done jus- 
tice upon tyrants what way they could soonest, 
how much more mild and humane then is it, to 
give them fair and open trial ; to teach lawless 
kings, and all who so much adore them, that not 
mortal man, or his imperious will, but justice, ' is 
the only true sovereign and supreme majesty upon 
earth? Let men cease therefore, out of faction 
and hypocrisy, to make outcries and horrid things 
of things so just and honorable. Though perhaps 



186 FROM THE TENURE OF 

till now, no Protestant state or kingdom can be 
alleged to have openly put to death their king, 
which lately some have written, and imputed to 
their great glory; much mistaking the matter. 
It is not, neither ought to be, the glory of a Prot- 
estant state never to have put their king to death ; 
it is the glory of a Protestant king never to have 
deserved death. And if the Parliament and mili- 
tary council do what they do without precedent, if 
it appear their duty, it argues the more wisdom, 
virtue, and magnanimity, that they know them- 
selves able to be a precedent to others ; who per- 
haps, in future ages, if they prove not too degenerate, 
will look up with honor, and aspire towards these 
exemplary and matchless deeds of their ancestors, 
as to the highest top of their civil glory and emula- 
tion ; which heretofore, in the pursuance of fame 
and foreign dominion, spent itself vaingloriously 
abroad; but henceforth may learn a better forti- 
tude, to dare execute highest justice on them that 
shall by force of arms endeavor the oppressing and 
bereaving of religion and their liberty at home. 
That no unbridled potentate or tyrant, but to his 
sorrow, for the future may presume such high and 
irresponsible license over mankind, to havoc and 
turn upside down whole kingdoms of men, as 
though they were no more in respect of his per- 
verse will than a nation of pismires 

For divines if we observe them have their pos- 
tures, and their motions no less expertly, and with 



KINGS AND MAGISTRATES. 187 

no less variety, than they that practice feats in the 
Artillery-ground. Sometimes they seem furiously 
to march on, and presently march counter ; by and 
by they stand, and then retreat ; or, if need be, can 
face about, or wheel in a whole body, with that 
cunning and dexterity as is almost unperceivable, 
to wind themselves by shifting ground into places 
of more advantage. And providence only must 
be the drum, providence the word of command, 
that calls them from above, but always to some 
larger benefice, or acts them into such or such 
figures and promotions. At their turns and doub- 
lings no men readier, to the right, or to the left ; 
for it is their turns which they serve chiefly ; herein 
only singular, that with them there is no certain 
hand, right or left, but as their own commodity 
thinks best to call it. But if there come a truth 
to be defended, which to them and their interest 
of this world seems not so profitable, straight these 
nimble motionists can find not even legs to stand 
upon ; and are no more of use to reformation thor- 
oughly performed, and not superficially, or to the 
advancement of truth, (which among mortal men 
is always in her progress,) than if on a sudden they 
were struck maim and crippled. Which the better 
to conceal, or the more to countenance by a general 
conformity to their own limping, they would have 
Scripture, they would have reason also, made to 
halt with them for company ; and would put us off 
with impotent conclusions, lame and shorter than 
the premises. 



188 KINGS AND MAGISTRATES. 

In this posture they seem to stand with great 
zeal and confidence on the wall of Sion ; but like 
Jebusites, not like Israelites, or Levites : blind also 
as well as lame, they discern not David from Adoni- 
bezec : but cry him up for the lord's anointed, 
whose thumbs and great toes not long before they 
had cut off upon their pulpit cushions. Therefore 
he who is our only King, the Root of David, and 
whose kingdom is eternal righteousness, with all 
those that war under him, whose happiness and 
final hopes are laid up in that only just and rightful 
kingdom, (which we pray incessantly may come 
soon, and in so praying wish hasty ruin and destruc- 
tion to all tyrants,) even he our immortal King, 
and all that love him, must of necessity have in 
abomination these blind and lame defenders of 
Jerusalem, as the soul of David hated them, and 
forbid them entrance into God's house, and his 
own. But as to those before them, .... being 
the best and chief of Protestant divines, we may 
follow them for faithful guides, and without doubt- 
ing may receive them, as witnesses abundant of 
what we here affirm concerning tyrants. And in- 
deed I find it generally the clear and positive de- 
termination of them all, (not prelatical, or of this 
late faction sub-prelatical,) who have written on 
this argument, that to do justice on a lawless king 
is to a private man unlawful ; to an inferior magis- 
trate, lawful. 




FROM 

OBSERVATIONS ON THE ARTICLES 
OF PEACE, &c. 

! E accuses first, " That we are the sub- 
verters of religion, the protectors and 
inviters not only of all false ones, but 
of irreligion and atheism " ; an accusa- 
tion that no man living could more unjustly use 
than our accuser himself; and which, without a 
strange besottedness, he could not expect but to be 
retorted upon his own head ; all men who are true 
Protestants, of which number he gives out to be 
one, know not a more immediate and killing sub- 
verter of all true religion than Antichrist, whom 
they generally believe to be the pope and Church 
of Rome ; he therefore, who makes peace with this 
grand enemy and persecutor of the true Church, 
he who joins with him, strengthens him, gives him 
root to grow up and spread his poison, removing 
all opposition against him, granting him schools, 
abbeys, and revenues, garrisons, towns, fortresses, 
as in so many of those articles may be seen, he of 

* James, Earl of Ormoud, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. 



190 FROM OBSERVATIONS ON 

all Protestants may be called most justly the sub- 
verter of true religion, the protector and inviter of 
irreligion and atheism, whether it be Ormond or 
his master. And if it can be no way proved that 
the Parliament hath countenanced Popery or Pa- 
pists, but have everywhere broken their temporal 
power, thrown down their public superstitions, and 
confined them to the bare enjoyment of that which 
is not in our reach, their consciences ; if they have 
encouraged all true ministers of the Gospel, that 
is to say, afforded them favor and protection in all 
places where they preached, and although they 
think not money or stipend to be the best encour- 
agement of a true pastor, yet therein also have not 
been wanting nor intend to be, they doubt not then 
to affirm themselves, not the subverters, but the 
maintainers and defenders, of true religion ; which 
of itself and by consequence is the surest and the 
strongest subversion, not only of all false ones, but 
of irreligion and atheism. For " the weapons of 
that warfare," as the apostle testifies, who best 
knew, " are not carnal, but mighty through God 
to the pulling down of strongholds, and all reason- 
ings, and every high thing exalted against the 
knowledge of God, surprising every thought unto 
the obedience of Christ, and easily revenging all 
disobedience." 2 Cor. x. What minister or clergy- 
man, that either understood his high calling, or 
sought not to erect a secular and carnal tyranny 
over spiritual things, would neglect this ample 



THE ARTICLES OF PEACE. 191 

and sublime power conferred upon him, and come 
a-begging to the weak hand of magistracy for that 
kind of aid which the magistrate hath no commis- 
sion to afford him, and in the way he seeks it 
hath been always found helpless and unprofitable. 
Neither is it unknown, or by wisest men unob- 
served, that the Church began then most appar- 
ently, to degenerate, and go to ruin, when she 
borrowed of the civil power more than fair encour- 
agement and protection, more than which Christ 
himself and his apostles never required. To say, 
therefore, that we protect and invite all false re- 
ligions, with irreligion also and atheism, because we 
lend not, or rather misapply not, the temporal power 
to help out, though in vain, the sloth, the spleen, 
the insufficiency of churchmen, in the execution of 
spiritual discipline over those within their charge, 
or those without, is an imputation that may be laid 
as well upon the best regulated states and govern- 
ments through the world ; who have been so 
prudent as never to employ the civil sword further 
than the edge of it could reach, that is, to civil 
offences only ; proving always against objects that 
were spiritual a ridiculous weapon. Our protec- 
tion therefore to men in civil matters unoffensive 
we cannot deny; their consciences we leave, as 
not within our cognizance, to the proper cure of 
instruction, praying for them. Nevertheless, if 
any be found among us declared atheists, malicious 
enemies of God, and of Christ ; the Parliament, I 



192 FROM THE ARTICLES OF PEACE. 

think, professes not to tolerate such, but with all 
befitting endeavors to suppress them. Otherways 
to protect none that in a larger sense may be taxed 
of irreligion and atheism, may perhaps be the 
ready way to exclude none sooner out of protec- 
tion, than those themselves that most accuse it to 
be so general to others. Lastly, that we invite 
such as these, or encourage them, is a mere slander 
without proof. 




FROM 



EIKONOKLASTES. 




UT the people, exorbitant and exces- 
sive in all their motions, are prone 
ofttimes not to a religious only, but 
to a civil kind of idolatry, in idolizing 
their kings : though never more mistaken in the 
object of their worship ; heretofore being wont to 
repute for saints those faithful and courageous 
barons, who lost their lives in the field, making 
glorious war against tyrants for the common lib- 
erty; as Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, 
against Henry III. ; Thomas Plantagenet, Earl of 
Lancaster, against Edward II. But now, with a 
besotted and degenerate baseness of spirit, except 
some few who yet retain in them the old English 
fortitude .and love of freedom, and have testified it 
by their matchless deeds, the rest, imbastardized 
from the ancient nobleness of their ancestors, are 
ready to fall flat, and give adoration to the image 
and memory of this man, who hath offered at more 
cunning fetches to undermine our liberties, and put 
tyranny into an art, than any British king before 



194 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

him. Which low dejection and debasement of 
mind in the people, I must confess, I cannot will- 
ingly ascribe to the natural disposition of an Eng- 
lishman, but rather to two other causes; first, to 
the prelates and their fellow-teachers, though of 
another name and sect, whose pulpit-stuff, both 
first and last, hath been the doctrine and perpetual 
infusion of servility and wretchedness to all their 
hearers, and whose lives, the type of worldliness 
and hypocrisy, without the least true pattern of 
virtue, righteousness, or self-denial in their whole 
practice. I attribute it, next, to the factious in- 
clination of most men, divided from the public by 
several ends and humors of their own 

I never knew that time in England, when men 
of truest religion were not counted sectaries : but 
wisdom now, valor, justice, constancy, prudence 
united and embodied to defend religion and our 
liberties, both by word and deed, against tyranny, 
is counted schism and faction. 

Thus in a graceless age things of highest praise 
and imitation under a right name, to make them 
infamous and hateful to the people, are mis- 
called. Certainly, if ignorance and perverseness 
will needs be national and universal, then they 
who adhere to wisdom and to truth, are not there- 
fore to be blamed, for being so few as to seem a 
sect or faction. But in my opinion it goes not ill 
with that people where these virtues grow so nu- 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 195 

merous and well joined together, as to resist and 
make head against the rage and torrent of that 
boisterous folly and superstition, that possesses and 
hurries on the vulgar sort. This therefore we may 
conclude to be a high honor done us from God, 
and a special mark of his favor, whom he hath 
selected as the sole remainder, after all these 
changes and commotions, to stand upright and 
steadfast in his cause ; dignified with the defence 
of truth and public liberty; while others, who 
aspired to be the top of zealots, and had almost 
brought religion to a kind of trading monopoly, 
have not only by their late silence and neutrality 
belied their profession, but foundered themselves 
and their consciences, to comply with enemies in 
that wicked cause and interest, which they have 
too often cursed in others, to prosper now in the 
same themselves 

" He hoped by his freedom and their moderation 
to prevent misunderstandings." * And wherefore 
not by their freedom and his moderation ? But 
freedom he thought too high a word for them, and 
moderation too mean a word for himself: this was 
not the way to prevent misunderstandings. He 
still " feared passion and prejudice in other men " ; 
not in himself: "and doubted not by the weight 
of his " own " reason, to counterpoise any faction " ; 

* This and quotations following are from the Eikon Basilik.6, 
which claimed to have been written by Charles I. 



196 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

it being so easy for him, and so frequent, to call 
his obstinacy reason, and other men's reason, fac- 
tion. We in the mean while must believe that 
wisdom and all reason came to him by title with 
his crown ; passion, prejudice, and faction came to 
others by being subjects. 

" He was sorry to hear, with what popular heat 
elections were carried in many places." Sorry 
rather, that court-letters and intimations prevailed 
no more, to divert or to deter the people from their 
free election of those men whom they thought best 
affected to religion and their country's liberty, both 
at that time in danger to be lost. And such men 
they were, as by the kingdom were sent to advise 
him, not sent to be cavilled at, because elected, or 
to be entertained by him with an undervalue and 
misprision of their temper, judgment, or affection. 
In vain was a Parliament thought fittest by the 
known laws of our nation, to advise and regulate 
unruly kings, if they, instead of hearkening to 
advice, should be permitted to turn it off, and re- 
fuse it by vilifying and traducing their advisers, or 
by accusing of a popular heat those that lawfully 
elected them 

And this is the substance of his first section, till 
we come to the devout of it, modelled into the 
form of a private psalter. Which they who so 
much admire, either for the matter or the manner, 
may as well admire the archbishop's late breviary, 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 197 

and many other as good manuals and handmaids 
of devotion, the lip-work of every prelatical litur- 
gist, clapped together and quilted out of Scripture 
phrase, with as much ease and as little need of 
Christian diligence or judgment, as belongs to the 
compiling of any ordinary and salable piece of 
English divinity, that the shops value. But he 
who, from such a kind of psalmistry, or any other 
verbal devotion, without the pledge and earnest of 
suitable deeds, can be persuaded of a zeal and 
true righteousness in the person, hath much yet to 
leam ; and knows not that the deepest policy of a 
tyrant hath been ever to counterfeit religious. 
And Aristotle, in his Politics, hath mentioned that 
special craft among twelve other tyrannical soph- 
isms. Neither want we examples : Andronicus 
Comnenus, the Byzantine emperor, though a most 
cruel tyrant, is reported by Nicetas to have been a 
constant reader of Saint Paul's Epistles ; and by 
continual study had so incorporated the phrase and 
style of that transcendent apostle into all his fa- 
miliar letters, that the imitation seemed to vie with 
the original. Yet this availed not to deceive the 
people of that empire, who, notwithstanding his 
saint's vizard, tore him to pieces for his tyranny. 

From stories of this nature both ancient and 
modern which abound, the poets also, and some 
English, have been in tins point so mindful of 
decorum, as to put never more pious words in the 
mouth of any person, than of a tyrant. I shall 



198 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

not instance an abstruse author, wherein the king 
might be less conversant, but one whom we well 
know was the closest companion of these his soli- 
tudes, William Shakespeare ; who introduces the 
person of Richard the Third, speaking in as high 
a strain of piety and mortification as is uttered in 
any passage of this book, and sometimes to the 
same sense and purpose with some words in this 
place : " I intended," saith he, "not only to oblige 
my friends, but my enemies." The like saith 
Richard, act ii. scene 1 : 

" I do not know that Englishman alive, 
With whom my soul is any jot at odds, 
More than the infant that is born to-night ; 
I thank my God for my humility." 

Other stuff of this sort may be read throughout the 
whole tragedy, w^herein the poet used not much 
license in departing from the truth of history, 
which delivers him a deep dissembler, not of his 
affections only, but of religion. 

In praying, therefore, and in the outward work 
of devotion, this king we see hath not at all ex- 
ceeded the worst of kings before him. But herein 
the worst of kings, professing Christianism, have 
by far exceeded him. They, for aught we know, 
have still prayed their own, or at least borrowed 
from fit authors. But this king, not content with 
that which, although in a thing holy, is no holy 
theft, to attribute to his own making other men's 
whole prayers, hath as it were unhallowed and 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 199 

unchristened the very duty of prayer itself, by 
borrowing to a Christian use prayers offered to a 
heathen god. Who would have imagined so little 
fear in him of the true all-seeing Deity, so little 
reverence of the Holy Ghost, whose office is to 
dictate and present our Christian prayers, so little 
care of truth in his last w T ords, or honor to himself, 
or to his friends, or sense of his afflictions, or of 
that sad hour which was upon him, as immediately 
before his death to pop into the hand of that grave 
bishop who attended him, for a special relique of 
his saintly exercises, a prayer stolen word for word 
from the mouth of a heathen woman praying to a 
heathen god ; and that in no serious book, but the 
vain amatorious poem of Sir Philip Sidney's Ar- 
cadia ; a book in that kind full of worth and wit, 
but among religious thoughts and duties not worthy 
to be named ; nor to be read at any time without 
good caution, much less in time of trouble and 
affliction to be a Christian's prayer-book ? . . . . 

However, to the benefit of others much more 
worth the gaining, I shall proceed in my assertion ; 
that if only but to taste wittingly of meat or drink 
offered to an idol be in the doctrine of St. Paul 
judged a pollution, much more must be his sin who 
takes a prayer so dedicated into his mouth and 
offers it to God. Yet hardly can it be thought 
upon (though how sad a thing !) without some 
kind of laughter at the manner and solemn trans- 
action of so gross a cozenage, that he, who had 



200 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

trampled over us so stately and so tragically, 
should leave the world at last so ridiculously in his 
exit, as to bequeath among his deifying friends 
that stood about him such a precious piece of 
mockery to be published by them, as must needs 
cover both his and their heads with shame, if they 
have any left. Certainly, they that will may now 
see at length how much they were deceived in him, 
and were ever like to be hereafter, who cared not, 
so near the minute of his death, to deceive his best 
and dearest friends with the trumpery of such a 
prayer, not more secretly than shamefully pur- 
loined; yet given them as the royal issue of his 
own proper zeal. And sure it was the hand of God 
to let them fall, and be taken in such a foolish 
trap, as hath exposed them to all derision; if for 
nothing else, to throw contempt and disgrace in 
the sight of all men upon this his idolized book, 
and the whole rosary of his prayers ; thereby testi- 
fying how little he accepted them from those who 
thought no better of the living God than of a 
buzzard idol, fit to be so served and worshipped in 
reversion, with the polluted orts and refuse of 
Arcadias and romances, without being able to dis- 
cern the affront rather than the worship of such an 
ethnic prayer. 

But leaving what might justly be offensive to 
God, it was a trespass also more than usual against 
human right, which commands, that every author 
should have the property of his own work reserved 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 201 

to him after death, as well as living. Many princes 
have been rigorous in laying taxes on their subjects 
by the head; but of any king heretofore that 
made a levy upon their wit, and seized it as his 
own legitimate, I have not whom besides to in- 
stance. True it is, I looked rather to have found 
him gleaning out of books written purposely to 
help devotion. And if, in likelihood, he had bor- 
rowed much more out of prayer-books than out of 
pastorals, then are these painted feathers, that set 
him off so gay among the people, to be thought 
few or none of them his own. But if from his 
divines he have borrowed nothing, nothing out of 
all the magazine, and the rheum of their mellifluous 
prayers and meditations, let them who now mourn 
for him as for Thammuz, them who howl in their 
pulpits, and by their howling declare themselves 
right wolves, remember and consider, in the midst 
of their hideous faces, when they do only not cut 
their flesh for him like those rueful priests whom 
Elijah mocked, that he who was once their Ahab, 
now their Josiah, though feigning outwardly to 
reverence churchmen, yet here hath so extremely 
set at naught both them and their praying faculty, 
that, being at a loss himself what to pray in cap- 
tivity, he consulted neither with the liturgy, nor 
with the directory, but, neglecting the huge fardell 
of all their honeycomb devotions, went directly 
where he doubted not to find better praying to his 
mind with Pamela, in the Countess's Arcadia. 

9* 



202 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

What greater argument of disgrace and ignominy 
could have been thrown with cunning upon the 
whole clergy, than that the king, among all his 
priestery, and all those numberless volumes of their 
theological distillations, not meeting with one man 
or book of that coat that could befriend him with 
a prayer in captivity, was forced to rob Sir Philip 
and his captive shepherdess of their heathen ori- 
sons, to supply in any fashion his miserable indi- 
gence, not of bread, but of a single prayer to God ? 
I say therefore not of bread, for that want may 
befall a good man, and yet not make him totally 
miserable : but he who wants a prayer to beseech 
God in his necessity, it is inexpressible how poor 
he is ; far poorer within himself than all his ene- 
mies can make him. And the unfitness, the in- 
decency of that pitiful supply which he sought, 
expresses yet further the deepness of his poverty. 

Thus much be said in general to his prayers, and 
in special to that Arcadian prayer used in his cap- 
tivity ; enough to undeceive us what esteem we 
are to set upon the rest. For he certainly, whose 
mind could serve him to seek a Christian prayer 
out of a pagan legend, and assume it for his own, 
might gather up the rest God knows from whence ; 
one perhaps out of the French Astrsea, another out 
of the Spanish Diana ; Amadis and Palmerin could 
hardly scape him. Such a person we may be sure 
had it not in him to make a prayer of his own, or 
at least would excuse himself the pains and cost 



FR OM EIKONOKLASTES. 203 

of his invention, so long as such sweet rhapsodies 
of heathenism and knight-errantry could yield him 
prayers. How dishonorable then, and how un- 
worthy of a Christian king, were these ignoble 
shifts to seem holy, and to get a saintship among 
the ignorant and wretched people ; to draw them 
by this deception, worse than all his former injuries, 
to go a whoring after him ! And how unhappy, 
how forsook of grace, and unbeloved of God that 
people who resolve to know no more of piety or of 
goodness, than to account him their chief saint and 
martyr, whose bankrupt devotion came not honestly 
by his very prayers ; but having sharked them from 
the mouth of a heathen worshipper, (detestable to 
teach him prayers !) sold them to those that stood 
and honored him next to the Messiah, as his own 
heavenly compositions in adversity ; for hopes no 
less vain and presumptuous (and death at that time 
so imminent upon him) than by these goodly rel- 
iques to be held a saint and martyr in opinion with 
the cheated people ! 

And thus far in the whole chapter we have seen 
and considered, and it cannot but be clear to all 
men, how, and for what ends, what concernments 
and necessities, the late king was no way induced, 
but every way constrained, to call this last Parlia- 
ment ; yet here in his first prayer he trembles not 
to avouch, as in the ears of God, " That he did it 
with an upright intention to his glory, and his 
people's good" : of which dreadful attestation, how 



204 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

sincerely meant, God, to whom it was avowed, can 
only judge ; and he hath judged already, and hath 
written his impartial sentence in characters legible 
to all Christendom ; and besides hath taught us, 
that there be some, whom he hath given over to 
delusion, whose very mind and conscience is defiled ; 
of whom St. Paul to Titus makes mention 

But let us hear what that sin was that lay so 
sore upon him, and, as one of his prayers given 
to Dr. Juxon testifies, to the very day of his 
death; it was his signing the bill of Strafford's 
execution ; a man whom all men looked upon as 
one of the boldest and most impetuous instruments 
that the King had to advance any violent or ille- 
gal design 

No marvel, then, if being as deeply criminous as 
the Earl himself, it stung his conscience to adjudge 
to death those misdeeds, whereof himself had been 
the chief author: no marvel though, instead of 
blaming and detesting his ambition, his evil coun- 
sel, his violence, and oppression of the people, he 
fall to praise his great abilities ; and with scholastic 
flourishes, beneath the decency of a king, compares 
him to the sun, which in all figurative use and sig- 
nificance bears allusion to a king, not to a subject : 
no marvel though he knit contradictions as close as 
words can lie together, " not approving in his judg- 
ment," and yet approving in his subsequent reason, 
all that Strafford did, as " driven by the necessity 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 205 

of times, and the temper of that people" ; for this 
excuses all his misdemeanors. Lastly, no marvel 
that he goes on building many fair and pious con- 
clusions upon false and wicked premises, which 
deceive the common reader, not well discerning 
the antipathy of such connections : but this is the 
marvel, and may be the astonishment, of all that 
have a conscience, how he durst in the sight of 
God (and with the same words of contrition where- 
with David repents the murdering of Uriah) re- 
pent his lawful compliance to that just act of not 
saving him, whom he ought to have delivered up 
to speedy punishment, though himself the guiltier 
of the two. 

If the deed were so sinful, to have put to death 
so great a malefactor, it would have taken much 
doubtless from the heaviness of his sin, to have 
told God in his confession how he labored, what 
dark plots he had contrived, into what a league 
entered, and with what conspirators, against his 
Parliament and kingdoms, to have rescued from 
the claim of justice so notable and so dear an 
instrument of tyranny ; which would have been a 
story, no doubt, as pleasing in the ears of heaven, 
as all these equivocal repentances. For it was 
fear, and nothing else, which made him feign before 
both the scruple and the satisfaction of his con- 
science, that is to say, of his mind : his first fear 
pretended conscience, that he might be borne with 
to refuse signing ; his latter fear, being more ur- 



206 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

gent, made him find a conscience both to sign and 
to be satisfied. As for repentance, it came not on 
him till a long time after ; when he saw " he could 
have suffered nothing more, though he had denied 
that bill." For how could he understandingly 
repent of letting that be treason, which the Parlia- 
ment and whole nation so judged ? This was that 
which repented him, to have given up to just pun- 
ishment so stout a champion of his designs, who 
might have been so useful to him in his following 
civil broils. It was a worldly repentance, not a 
conscientious ; or else it was a strange tyranny, 
which his conscience had got over him, to vex him 
like an evil spirit for doing one act of justice, and 
by that means to " fortify his resolution " from 
ever doing so any more. That mind mj|g: needs 
be irrecoverably depraved, which, either by chance 
or importunity, tasting but once of one just deed, 
spatters at it, and abhors the relish ever after. 

To the Scribes and Pharisees woe was denounced 
by our Saviour, for straining at a gnat and swallow- 
ing a camel, though a gnat were to be strained at : 
but to a conscience with whom one good is so hard 
to pass down as to endanger almost a choking, and 
bad deeds without number, though as big and 
bulky as the ruin of three kingdoms, go down 
currently without straining, certainly a far greater 
woe appertains. If his conscience were come to 
that unnatural dyscrasy, as to digest poison and to 
keck at wholesome food, it was not for the Parlia- 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 207 

ment or any of his kingdoms to feed with him any- 
longer. Which to conceal he would persuade us, 
that the Parliament also in their conscience escaped 
not " some touches of remorse " for putting Straf- 
ford to death, in forbidding it by an after-act to be 
a precedent for the future. But, in a fairer con- 
struction, that act implied rather a desire in them 
to pacify the king's mind, whom they perceived by 
this means quite alienated : in the mean while not 
imagining that this after-act should be retorted on 
them to tie up justice for the time to come upon 
like occasion, whether this were made a precedent 
or not, no more than the want of such a precedent, 
if it had been wanting, had been available to hin- 
der this. 

But how likely is it, that this after-act argued 
in the Parliament their least repenting for the 
death of Strafford, when it argued so little in the 
king himself; who, notwithstanding this after-act, 
which had his own hand and concurrence, if not his 
own instigation, within the same year accused of 
high-treason no less than six members at once for 
the same pretended crimes, which his conscience 
would not yield to think treasonable in the earl ? 
So that this his subtle argument to fasten a repent- 
ing, and, by that means, a guiltiness of Strafford's 
death upon the Parliament, concludes upon his 
own head ; and shows us plainly, that either noth- 
ing in his judgment was treason against the com- 
monwealth, but only against the king's person, (a 



208 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

tyrannical principle !) or that his conscience was 
a perverse and prevaricating conscience, to scruple 
that the commonwealth should punish for treason- 
ous in one eminent offender that which he himself 
sought so vehemently to have punished in six guilt- 
less persons. If this were " that touch of con- 
science, which he bore with greater regret " than 
for any sin committed in his life, whether it were 
that proditory aid sent to Rochelle and religion 
abroad, or that prodigality of shedding blood at 
home, to a million of his subjects' lives not valued 
in comparison to one Strafford ; we may consider 
yet at last, what true sense and feeling could be in 
that conscience, and what fitness to be the master- 
conscience of three kingdoms. 

But the reason why he labors, that we should 
take notice of so much " tenderness and regret in 
his soul for having any hand in Strafford's death," 
is worth the marking ere we conclude : " he hoped 
it would be some evidence before God and man to 
all posterity, that he was far from bearing that vast 
load and guilt of blood " laid upon him by others : 
which hath the likeness of a subtle dissimulation ; 
bewailing the blood of one man, his commodious 
instrument, put to death, most justly, though by 
him unwillingly, that we might think him too ten- 
der to shed willingly the blood of those thousands 
whom he counted rebels. And thus by dipping 
voluntarily his finger's end, yet with show of great 
remorse, in the blood of Strafford, whereof all men 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 209 

clear him, he thinks to scape that sea of innocent 
blood, wherein his own gnilt inevitably hath plunged 
him all over. And we may well perceive to what 
easy satisfactions and purgations he had inured his 
secret conscience, who thought by such weak poli- 
cies and ostentations as these to gain belief and 
absolution from understanding men 

That the king was so emphatical and elaborate 
on this theme against tumults, and expressed with 
such a vehemence his hatred of them, will redound 
less perhaps than he was aware to the commenda- 
tion of his government. For, besides that in good 
governments they happen seldomest, and rise not 
without cause, if they prove extreme and pernicious, 
they were never counted so to monarchy, but to 
monarchical tyranny ; and extremes one with 
another are at most antipathy. If then the king 
so extremely stood in fear of tumults, the inference 
will endanger him to be the other extreme 

The bill for a triennial Parliament was but the 
third part of one good step toward that which in 
times past was our annual right. The other bill 
for settling this Parliament was new indeed, but at 
that time very necessary ; and, in the king's own 
words, no more than what the world " was fully 
confirmed he might in justice, reason, honor, and 
conscience grant them" ; for to that end he affirms 
to have done it. 

But whereas he attributes the passing of them 
to his own act of grace and willingness, (as his 



210 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

manner is to make virtues of his necessities,) and 
giving to himself all the praise, heaps ingratitude 
upon the Parliament, a little memory will set the 
clean contrary before us ; that for those beneficial 
acts we owe what we owe to the Parliament, but 
to his granting them neither praise nor thanks. 
The first bill granted much less than two former 
statutes yet in force by Edward the Third ; that a 
Parliament should be called every year, or oftener, 
if need were ; nay, from a far ancienter law-book, 
called the "Mirror," it is affirmed in a late treatise 
called "Rights of the Kingdom," that Parliaments 
by our old laws ought twice a year to be at Lon- 
don. From twice in one year to once in three 
years, it may be soon cast up how great a loss we 
fell into of our ancient liberty by that act, which 
in the ignorant and slavish minds we then were, 
was thought a great purchase. 

Wisest men perhaps were contented (for the 
present, at least) by this act to have recovered 
Parliaments, which were then upon the brink of 
danger to be forever lost. And this is that which 
the king preaches here for a special token of his 
princely favor, to have abridged and overreached 
the people five parts in six what their due was, 
both by ancient statute and originally. And thus 
the taking from us all but a triennial remnant of 
that English freedom which our fathers left us 
double, in a fair annuity enrolled, is set out, and 
sold to us here for the gracious and over-liberal 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 211 

giving of a new enfranchisement. How little, may 
we think, did he ever give us, who in the bill of 
his pretended givings writes down imprimis that 
benefit or privilege once in three years given us, 
which by so giving he more than twice every year 
illegally took from us : such givers as give single 
to take away sixfold, be t to our enemies ! for cer- 
tainly this commonwealth, if the statutes of our 
ancestors be worth aught, would have found it hard 
and hazardous to thrive under the damage of such 

a guileful liberality 

Our forefathers were of that courage and severity 
of zeal to justice and their native liberty, against 
the proud contempt and misrule of their kings, 
that when Richard the Second departed but from 
a committee of lords, who sat preparing matter for 
the Parliament not yet assembled, to the removal 
of his evil counsellors, they first vanquished and 
put to flight Robert de Vere, his chief favorite ; 
and then, coming up to London with a huge army, 
required the king, then withdrawn for fear, but no 
further off than the Tower, to come to Westmin- 
ster. Which he refusing, they told him flatly, that 
unless he came they would choose another. So 
hio'li a crime it was accounted then for kings to 
absent themselves, not from a Parliament, which 
none ever durst, but from any meeting of his peers 
and counsellors, which did but tend towards a 
Parliament. Much less would they have suffered, 
that a king, for such trivial and various pretences, 



212 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

one while for fear of tumults, another while " for 
shame to see them," should leave his regal station, 
and the whole kingdom bleeding to death of those 
wounds, which his own unskilful and perverse gov- 
ernment had inflicted 

It being therefore most unlike a law, to ordain a 
remedy so slender and unlawlike, to be the utmost 
means of all public safety or prevention, as advice 
is, which may at any time be rejected by the sole 
judgment of one man, the king, and so unlike the 
law of England, which lawyers say is the quin- 
tessence of reason and mature wisdom ; we may 
conclude, that the king's negative voice was never 
any law, but an absurd and reasonless custom, 
begotten and grown up either from the flattery of 
basest times or the usurpation of immoderate 
princes. Thus much to the law of it, by a better 
evidence than rolls and records, — reason. But is 
it possible he should pretend also to reason, that 
the judgment of one man, not as a wise or good 
man, but as a king, and ofttimes a wilful, proud, 
and wicked king, should outweigh the prudence 
and all the virtue of an elected Parliament? What 
an abusive thing were it then to summon Parlia- 
ments, that by the major part of voices greatest 
matters may be there debated and resolved, when- 
as one single voice after that shall dash all their 
resolutions? 

He attempts to give a reason why it should : 
" Because the whole Parliaments represent not him 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 213 

in any kind." But mark how little he advances ; 
for if the Parliament represent the whole kingdom, 
as is sure enough they do, then doth the king 
represent only himself; and if a king without his 
kingdom be in a civil sense nothing, then without 
or against the representative of his whole kingdom, 
he himself represents nothing ; and by consequence 
his judgment and his negative is as good as nothing. 
And though we should allow him to be something, 
yet not equal or comparable to the whole kingdom, 
and so neither to them who represent it; much 
less that one syllable of his breath put into the 
scales should be more ponderous than the joint 
voice and efficacy of a whole Parliament, assembled 
by election, and endued with the plenipotence of a 
free nation, to make laws, not to be denied laws ; 
and with no more but "no!" a sleeveless reason, 
in the most pressing times of danger and disturb- 
ance to be sent home frustrate and remediless. 

Yet here he maintains, " to be no further bound 
to agree with the votes of both houses, than he sees 
them to agree with the will of God, with his just 
rights as a king, and the general good of his people." 
As to the freedom of his agreeing or not agreeing, 
limited with due bounds, no man reprehends it; 
this is the question here, or the miracle rather, why 
his only not agreeing should lay a negative bar and 
inhibition upon that which is agreed to by a whole 
Parliament, though never so conducing to the pub- 
lic good or safety ? To know the will of God bet- 



214 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

ter than his whole kingdom, whence should he 
have it ? Certainly his court-breeding and his per- 
petual conversation with flatterers was but a bad 
school. To judge of his own rights could not 
belong to him, who had no right by law in any 
court to judge of so much as felony or treason, 
being held a party in both these cases, much more 
in this ; and his rights however should give place 
to the general good, for which end all his rights 
were given him. 

Lastly, to suppose a clearer insight and discern- 
ing of the general good, allotted to his own singular 
judgment, than to the Parliament and all the 
people, and from that self-opinion of discerning, to 
deny them that good which they, being all free- 
men, seek earnestly and call for, is an arrogance, 
and iniquity beyond imagination rude and unrea- 
sonable ; they undoubtedly having most authority 
to judge of the public good, who for that purpose 
are chosen out and sent by the people to advise 
him. And if it may be in him to see oft " the 
major part of them not in the right," had it not 
been more his modesty, to have doubted their see- 
ing him more often in the wrong ? .... In all 
wise nations the legislative power, and the judicial 
execution of that power, have been most com- 
monly distinct, and in several hands ; but yet the 
former supreme, the other subordinate. If then 
the king be only set up to execute the law, which 
is indeed the highest of his office, he ought no 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 215 

more to make or forbid the making of any law, 
agreed upon in Parliament, than other inferior 
judges, who are his deputies. Neither can he 
more reject a law offered him by the Commons, 
than he can new make a law, which they reject. 
And yet the more to credit and uphold his cause, he 
would seem to have philosophy on his side ; strain- 
ing her wise dictates to unphilosophical purposes. 
But when kings come so low, as to fawn upon 
philosophy, which before they neither valued nor 
understood, it is a sign that fails not, they are then 
put to their last trump. And philosophy as well 
requites them, by not suffering her golden sayings 
either to become their lips, or to be used as masks 
and colors of injurious and violent deeds. So that 
what they presume to borrow from her sage and 
virtuous rules, like the riddle of the Sphinx not 
understood, breaks the neck of their own cause. 

But now again to politics : " He cannot think 
the majesty of the crown of England to be bound 
by any coronation oath in a blind and brutish for- 
mality, to consent to whatever its subjects in Par- 
liament shall require." What tyrant could presume 
to say more, when he meant to kick down all law, 
government, and bond of oath ? But why he so 
desires to absolve himself the oath of his corona- 
tion would be worth the knowing. It cannot but 
be yielded, that the oath, which binds him to the 
performance of his trust, ought in reason to contain 
the sum of what his chief trust and office is. But 



216 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

if it neither do enjoin, nor mention to him, as a 
part of his duty, the making nor the marring of 
any law, or scrap of law, but requires only his 
assent to those laws which the people have already 
chosen, or shall choose ; (for so both the Latin of 
that oath, and the old English ; and all reason ad- 
mits, that the people should not lose under a new 
king what freedom they had before ;) then that 
negative voice so contended for, to deny the pass- 
ing of any law which the Commons choose, is both 
against the oath of his coronation, and his kingly 
office. 

And if the king may deny to pass what the Par- 
liament hath chosen to be a law, then doth the 
king make himself superior to his whole kingdom ; 
which not only the general maxims of policy gain- 
say, but even our own standing laws, as hath been 
cited to him in remonstrances heretofore, that 
"the king hath two superiors, the law, and his 
court of Parliament." But this he counts to be a 
blind and brutish formality, whether it be law, or 
oath, or his duty, and thinks to turn it off with 
wholesome words and phrases, which he then first 
learnt of the honest people, when they were so 
often compelled to use them against those more 
truly blind and brutish formalities thrust, upon us 
by his own command, not in civil matters only, but 
in spiritual. And if his oath to perform what the 
people require, when they crown him, be in his 
esteem a brutish formality, then doubtless those 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 217 

aths of allegiance and supremacy, taken 
absolute on our part, may most justly appear to us 
in all respects as brutish and as formal ; and so by 
Ms own sentence no more binding to us, than his 
oath to him 

Thus much of what he suffered by Hotham, and 
with what patience : now of what Hotham suffered, 
as he ju _ ■-.-. . : : opposing him : M he could not but 
observe how God, not long after, pleaded and 
nged his cause." Most men are too apt, and 
commonly the worst of men. so to interpret, and 
expound the judgments of God, and all other eve 
of Providence or chance, as makes most to the 
justifying of their own cause, though never so 
evil ; and attribute all to the particular favor of 
God towards them. Thus when Saul heard that 
David was in Keilah, ;; God," saith he. i; hath 
delivered him into my hands, for he is shut in.*' 
But how far that king was deceived in his thought 
that God was favoring to his cause, that story un- 
folds ; and how little reason this king had to impute 
the death of Hotham to God's avencrement of his 
repulse at Hull, may easily be seen. 

For while Hotham continued faithful to his 
trust, no man more safe, more successful, more in 
reputation than he : but from the time he r 
sought to make his peace with the king, and to 
betray into his hands that town, into which before 
he had denied, him entrance, nothing prospered 
with him. Certainly had God purposed him such 
10 



218 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

an end for his opposition to the king, he would not 
have deferred to punish him till then, when of an 
enemy he was changed to be the king's friend, nor 
have made his repentance and amendment the 
occasion of his ruin. How much more likely is it, 
since he fell into the act of disloyalty to his charge, 
that the judgment of God concurred with the pun- 
ishment of man, and justly cut him off for revolting 
to the king; to give the world an example, that 
glorious deeds done to ambitious ends find reward 
answerable, not to their outward seeming, but to 
their inward ambition ! In the mean while, what 
thanks he had from the king for revolting to his 
cause, and what good opinion for dying in his ser- 
vice, they who have ventured like him, or intend, 
may here take notice. 

He proceeds to declare, not only in general 
wherefore God's judgment was upon Hotham, but 
undertakes by fancies and allusions to give a criti- 
cism upon every particular, " that his head was 
divided from his body, because his heart was divided 
from the king ; two heads cut off in one family for 
affronting the head of the commonwealth ; the 
eldest son being infected with the sin of his father, 
against the father of his country." These petty 
glosses and conceits on the high and secret judg- 
ments of God, besides the boldness of unwarrant- 
able commenting, are so weak and shallow, and so 
like the quibbles of a court sermon, that we may 
safely reckon them either fetched from such a pat- 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 219 

tern, or that the hand of some household priest 
foisted them in ; lest the world should forget how- 
much he was a disciple of those cymbal doctors. 
But that argument, by which the author would 
commend them to us, discredits them the more ; 
for if they be so " obvious to every fancy," the 
more likely to be erroneous, and to misconceive 
the mind of those high secrecies, whereof they 
presume to determine. For God judges not by 

human fancy 

" He is sorry that Hotham felt the justice of 
others, and fell not rather into the hands of his 
mercy." But to clear that, he should have shown 
us what mercy he had ever used to such as fell into 
his hands before, rather than what mercy he in- 
tended to such as never could come to ask it. 
Whatever mercy one man might have expected, it 
is too well known the whole nation found none ; 
though they besought it often, and so humbly ; 
but had been swallowed up in blood and ruin, to set 
his private will above the Parliament, had not his 
strength failed him. " Yet clemency he counts a 
debt, which he ought to pay to those that crave it ; 
since we pay not anything to God for his mercy 
but prayers and praises." By this reason we ought 
as freely to pay all things to all men ; for all that 
we receive from God, what do we pay for, more 
than prayers and praises ? We looked for the dis- 
charge of his office, the payment of his duty to 
the kingdom, and are paid court-payment, with 



220 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

empty sentences that have the sound of gravity, 
but the significance of nothing pertinent 

" But he had a soul invincible." What praise 
is that ? The stomach of a child is ofttimes invin- 
cible to all correction. The unteachable man hath 
a soul to all reason and good advice invincible ; 
and he who is intractable, he whom nothing can 
persuade, may boast himself invincible ; whenas in 
some things to be overcome, is more honest and 
laudable than to conquer. 

He labors to have it thought, " that his fearing 
God more than man " was the ground of his suffer- 
ings ; but he should have known that a good prin- 
ciple not rightly understood may prove as hurtful 
as a bad ; and his fear of God may be as faulty as 
a blind zeal. He pretended to fear God more than 
the Parliament, who never urged him to do other- 
wise ; he should also have feared God more than 
he did his courtiers, and the bishops, who drew 
him as they pleased to things inconsistent with the 
fear of God. Thus boasted Saul to have "per- 
formed the commandment of God," and stood in 
it against Samuel ; but it was found at length, that 
he had feared the people more than God, in saving 
those fat oxen for the worship of God, which were 
appointed for destruction. Not much unlike, if 
not much worse, was that fact of his, who, for fear 
to displease his court and mongrel clergy, with the 
dissolutest of the people, upheld in the Church of 
God, while his power lasted, those beasts of Ama- 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 221 

lee, the prelates, against the advice of his Parlia- 
ment and the example of all Reformation ; in this 
more inexcusable than Saul, that Saul was at length 
convinced, he to the hour of death fixed in his 
false persuasion ; and soothes himself in the flatter- 
ing peace of an erroneous and obdurate conscience ; 
singing to his soul vain psalms of exultation, as if 
the Parliament had assailed his reason with the 
force of arms, and not he on the contrary their 
reason with his arms; which hath been proved 

already, and shall be more hereafter 

He complains " that civil war must be the fruits 
of his seventeen years' reigning with such a meas- 
ure of justice, peace, plenty, and religion, as all 
nations either admired or envied." For the justice 
we had, let the council-table, star-chamber, high- 
commission speak the praise of it ; not forgetting 
the unprincely usage, and, as far as might be, the 
abolishing of Parliaments, the displacing of honest 
judges, the sale of offices, bribery, and exaction, 
not found out to be punished, but to be shared in 
with impunity for the time to come. Who can 
number the extortions, the oppressions, the public 
robberies and rapines committed on the subject 
both by sea and land, under various pretences? 
their possessions also taken from them, one while 
as forest-land, another while as crown-land; nor 
were their goods exempted, no, not the bullion in 
the mint ; piracy was become a project owned and 
authorized against the subject. For the peace we 



222 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

had, what peace was that which drew out the Eng- 
lish to a needless and dishonorable voyage against 
the Spaniard at Cales ? Or that which lent our 
shipping to a treacherous and antichristian war 
against the poor Protestants of Rochelle, our sup- 
pliants ? What peace was that which fell to rob 
the French by sea, to the embarring of all our 
merchants in that kingdom ? which brought forth 
that unblest expedition to the Isle of Rh£, doubtful 
whether more calamitous in the success, or in the 
design, betraying all the flower of our military 
youth and best commanders to a shameful surprisal 
and execution. This was the peace we had, and 
the peace we gave, whether to friends or to foes 
abroad. And if at home any peace were intended 
us, what meant those Irish billeted soldiers in all 
parts of the kingdom, and the design of German 
horse to subdue us in our peaceful houses ? 

For our religion, where was there a more igno- 
rant, profane, and vicious clergy, learned in nothing 
but the antiquity of their pride, their covetousness, 
and superstition ? whose unsincere and leavenous 
doctrine, corrupting the people, first taught them 
looseness, then bondage ; loosening them from all 
sound knowledge and strictness of life, the more 
to fit them for the bondage of tyranny and super- 
stition. So that what was left us for other nations 
not to pity, rather than admire or envy, all those 
seventeen years, no wise man could see. For 
wealth and plenty in a land where justice reigns 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 223 

not is no argument of a flourishing state, but of a 
nearness rather to ruin or commotion. 

These were not "some miscarriages" only of 
government, "which might escape," but a univer- 
sal distemper, and reducement of law to arbitrary- 
power ; not through the evil counsels of " some 
men," but through the constant course and prac- 
tice of all that were in highest favor : whose worst 
actions frequently avowing he took upon himself; 
and what faults did not yet seem in public to be 
originally his, such care he took by professing and 
proclaiming openly, as made them all at length his 
own adopted sins. The persons also, when he 
could no longer protect, he esteemed and favored 
to the end ; but never otherwise than by constraint 
yielded any of them to due punishment ; thereby 
manifesting that what they did was by his own 
authority and approbation. 

Yet here he asks, "whose innocent blood he 
hath shed, what widows' or orphans' tears can wit- 
ness against him?" After the suspected poisoning 
of his father, not inquired into but smothered up, 
and him protected and advanced to the very half 
of his kingdom, who was accused in Parliament to 
be the author of the fact ; (with much more evi- 
dence than Duke Dudley, that false protector, is 
accused upon record to have poisoned Edward the 
Sixth ;) after all his rage and persecution, after so 
many years of cruel war on his people in three 
kingdoms ! Whence the author of " Truths Mani- 



224 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

fest," a Scotsman, not unacquainted with affairs, 
positively affirms, " that there hath been more 
Christian blood shed by the commission, approba- 
tion, and connivance of King Charles, and his 
father James, in the latter end of their reign, than 
in the ten Roman persecutions. " Not to speak of 
those many whippings, pillories, and other corporal 
inflictions, wherewith his reign also, before this 
war, was not unbloody ; some have died in prison 
under cruel restraint, others in banishment, whose 
lives were shortened through the rigor of that per- 
secution wherewith so many years he infested the 
true Church. 

And those six members all men judged to have 
escaped no less than capital danger, whom he, so 
greedily pursuing into the House of Commons, had 
not there the forbearance to conceal how much it 
troubled him, " that the birds were flown." If 
some vulture in the mountains could have opened 
his beak intelligibly and spoke, what fitter words 
could he have uttered at the loss of his prey ? 
The tyrant Nero, though not yet deserving that 
name, set his hand so unwillingly to the execution 
of a condemned person, as to wish " he had not 
known letters." Certainly for a king himself to 
charge his subjects with high-treason, and so vehe- 
mently to prosecute them in his own cause, as to 
do the office of a searcher, argued in him no great 
aversation from shedding blood, were it but to 
" satisfy his anger," and that revenge was no un- 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 225 

pleasing morsel to him, whereof he himself thought 
not much to be so diligently his own caterer. But 
we insist rather upon what was actual than what 
was probable 

It were a folly beyond ridiculous, to count our- 
selves a free nation, if the king, not in Parliament, 
but in his own person, and against them, might 
appropriate to himself the strength of a whole na- 
tion as his proper goods. What the laws of the 
land are, a Parliament should know best, having 
both the life and death of laws in their law-giving 
power : and the law of England is, at best, but the 
reason of Parliament 

But what needed that ? " They knew his chief- 
est arms left him were those only which the ancient 
Christians were wont to use against their perse- 
cutors, — prayers and tears." O sacred reverence 
of God ! respect and shame of men ! whither were 
ye fled when these hypocrisies were uttered ? 
Was the kingdom then at all that cost of blood to 
remove from him none but prayers and tears ? 
What were those thousands of blaspheming cav- 
aliers about him, whose mouths let fly oaths and 
curses by the volley : were those the prayers ; and 
those carouses drunk to the confusion of all things 
good or holy, did those minister the tears ? Were 
they prayers and tears that were listed at York, 
mustered on Heworth Moor, and laid siege to Hull 
for the guard of his person ? Were prayers and 
tears at so high a rate in Holland, that nothing 
10* o 



226 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

could purchase them but the crown jewels ? Yet 
they in Holland (such word was sent us) sold them 
for guns, carabines, mortar-pieces, cannons, and 
other deadly instruments of war; which, when 
they came to York, were all, no doubt by the 
merit of some great saint, suddenly transformed 
into prayers and tears: and, being divided into 
regiments and brigades, were the only arms that 
mischieved us in all those battles and encounters. 

These were his chief arms, whatever we must 
call them, and yet such arms as they who fought 
for the commonwealth have, by the help of better 
prayers, vanquished and brought to nothing 

As for sole power of the militia, which he claims 
as a right no less undoubted than the crown, it 
bath been oft enough told him that he hath no more 
authority over the sword than over the law : over 
the law he hath none, either to establish or to 
abrogate, to interpret or to execute, but only by 
his courts and in his courts, whereof the Parlia- 
ment is highest ; no more, therefore, hath he power 
of the militia, which is the sword, either to use or 
to dispose, but with consent of Parliament: give 
him but that, and as good give him in a lump all 
our laws and liberties. For if the power of the 
sword were anywhere separate and undepending 
from the power of the law, which is originally 
seated in the highest court, then would that power 
of the sword be soon master of the law : and being 
at one man's disposal might, when he pleased, con- 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 227 

trol the law ; and in derision of our Magna Charta, 
which were but weak resistance against an armed 
tyrant, might absolutely enslave us. And not to 
have in ourselves, though vaunting to be freeborn, 
the power of our own freedom, and the public 
safety, is a degree lower than not to have the prop- 
erty of our own goods. For liberty of person, and 
the right of self-preservation, is much nearer, 
much more natural, and more worth to all men, 
than the property of their goods and wealth. Yet 
such power as all this did the king in open terms 
challenge to have over us, and brought thou- 
sands to help him win it; so much more good 
at fighting than at understanding, as to persuade 
themselves, that they fought then for the subject's 

liberty 

" This honor," he saith, " they did him, to put 
him on the giving part." And spake truer than 
he intended, it being merely for honor's sake that 
they did so ; not that it belonged to him of right : 
for what can he give to a Parliament, who receives 
all he hath from the people, and for the people's 
good ? Yet now he brings his own conditional 
rights to contest and be preferred before the peo- 
ple's good ; and yet, unless it be in order to their 
good, he hath no rights at all; reigning by the 
laws of the land, not by his own ; which laws are 
in the hands of Parliament to change or abrogate 
as they see best for the commonwealth, even to the 
taking away of kingship itself, when it grows too 
masterful and burdensome. 



228 FROM E1K0N0KLASTES. 

For every commonwealth is in general defined, 
a society sufficient of itself, in all things conducible 
to well-being and commodious life. Any of which 
requisite things, if it cannot have without the gift 
and favor of a single person, or without leave of 
his private reason or his conscience, it cannot be 
thought sufficient of itself, and by consequence no 
commonwealth, nor free ; but a multitude of vassals 
in the possession and domain of one absolute lord, 
and wholly obnoxious to his will. If the king have 
power to give or deny anything to his Parliament, 
he must do it either as a person several from them, 
or as one greater : neither of which will be allowed 
him : not to be considered severally from them ; 
for as the king of England can do no wrong, so 
neither can he do right but in his courts and by 
his courts ; and what is legally done in them, shall 
be deemed the king's assent, though he as a several 
person shall judge or endeavor the contrary ; so 
that indeed without his courts, or against them, he 
is no king. If therefore he obtrude upon us any 
public mischief, or withhold from us any general 
good, which is wrong in the highest degree, he 
must do it as a tyrant, not as a king of England, 
by the known maxims of our law. Neither can he, 
as one greater, give aught to the Parliament which 
is not in their own power, but he must be greater 
also than the kingdom which they represent: so 
that to honor him with the giving part was a mere 
civility, and may be well termed the courtesy of 
England, not the king's due 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 229 

But the " incommunicable jewel of his con- 
science" he will not give, "but reserve to him- 
self." It seems that his conscience was none of 
the crown jewels; for those we know were in 
Holland, not incommunicable, to buy arms against 
his subjects. Being therefore but a private jewel, 
he could not have done a greater pleasure to the 
kingdom, than by reserving it to himself. But he, 
contrary to what is here professed, would have his 
conscience not an incommunicable, but a universal 
conscience, the whole kingdom's conscience. Thus 
what he seems to fear lest we should ravish from 
him, is our chief complaint that he obtruded upon 
us ; we never forced him to part with his conscience, 
but it was he that would have forced us to part 
with ours. 

• • • • • 

Some things they proposed " which would have 
wounded the inward peace of his conscience." 
The more our evil hap, that three kingdoms should 
be thus pestered with one conscience ; who chiefly 
scrupled to grant us that, which the Parliament 
advised him to, as the chief means of our public 
welfare and reformation. These scruples to many 
perhaps will seem pretended; to others, upon as 
good grounds, may seem real ; and that it was the 
just judgment of God, that he who was so cruel 
and so remorseless to other men's consciences, 
should have a conscience within him as cruel 
to himself; constraining him as he constrained 



230 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

others, and ensnaring him in such ways and coun- 
sels as were certain to be his destruction 

But " to exclude him from all power of denial 
seems an arrogance " ; in the Parliament, he means : 
what in him then to deny against the Parliament ? 
None at all, by what he argues : for, " by petition- 
ing they confess their inferiority, and that obliges 
them to rest, if not satisfied, yet quieted, with such 
an answer as the will and reason of their superior 
thinks fit to give." First, petitioning, in better 
English, is no more than requesting or requiring ; 
and men require not favors only, but their due; 
and that not only from superiors, but from equals, 
and inferiors also. The noblest Romans, when 
they stood for that which was a kind of regal honor, 
the consulship, were wont in a submissive manner 
to go about, and beg that highest dignity of the 
meanest plebeians, naming them man by man ; 
which in their tongue was called petitio consulatus. 
And the Parliament of England petitioned the 
king, not because all of them were inferior to him, 
but because he was inferior to any one of them, 
which they did of civil custom, and for fashion's 
sake, more than of duty ; for by plain law cited 
before, the Parliament is his superior. 

But what law in any trial or dispute enjoins a 
freeman to rest quieted, though not satisfied, with 
the will and reason of his superior? It were a 
mad law that would subject reason to superiority 
of place. And if our highest consultations and 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 231 

purposed laws must be terminated by the king's 
will, then is the will of one man our law, and no 
subtlety of dispute can redeem the Parliament and 
nation from being slaves : neither can any tyrant 
require more than that his will or reason, though 
not satisfying, should yet be rested in, and deter- 
mine all things. We may conclude, therefore, 
that when the Parliament petitioned the king, it 
was but merely form, let it be as " foolish and ab- 
surd" as he pleases. It cannot certainly be so 
absurd as what he requires, that the Parliament 
should confine their own and all the kingdom's 
reason to the will of one man, because it was his 
hap to succeed his father. For neither God nor 
the laws have subjected us to his will, nor set his 
reason to be our sovereign above law, (which must 
needs be, if he can strangle it in the birth,) but 
set his person over us in the sovereign execution 
of such laws as the Parliament establish. The 
Parliament, therefore, without any usurpation, hath 
had it always in their power to limit and confine 
the exorbitancy of kings, whether they call it their 

will, their reason, or their conscience 

He falls next to flashes, and a multitude of 
words, in all which is contained no more than what 
might be the plea of any guiltiest offender : — he 
was not the author, because " he hath the greatest 
share of loss and dishonor by what is committed." 
Who is there that offends God, or his neighbor, on 
whom the greatest share of loss and dishonor lights 



232 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

not in the end ? But in act of doing evil, men use 
not to consider the event of these evil doings ; or 
if they do, have then no power to curb the sway 
of their own wickedness ; so that the greatest share 
of loss and dishonor to happen upon themselves, is 
no argument that they were not guilty 

It must needs seem strange, where men accus- 
tom themselves to ponder and contemplate things 
in their first original and institution, that kings, 
who, as all other officers of the public, were at first 
chosen and installed only by consent and suffrage 
of the people, to govern them as freemen by laws 
of their own making, and to be, in consideration 
of that dignity and riches bestowed upon them, the 
intrusted servants of the commonwealth, should, 
notwithstanding, grow up to that dishonest en- 
croachment, as to esteem themselves masters, both 
of that great trust which they serve, and of the 
people that betrusted them ; counting what they 
ought to do, both in discharge of their public duty, 
and for the great reward of honor and revenue 
which they receive, as done all of mere grace and 
favor ; as if their power over us were by nature, 
and from themselves, or that God had sold us into 
their hands. 

Indeed, if the race of kings were eminently the 
best of men, as the breed at Tutbury is of horses, 
it would in reason then be their part only to com- 
mand, ours always to obey. But kings, by genera- 
tion no way excelling others, and most commonly 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 233 

not being the wisest or the worthiest by far of 
whom they claim to have the governing ; that we 
should yield them subjection to our own ruin, or 
hold of them the right of our common safety, and 
our natural freedom by mere gift, from the super- 
fluity of their royal grace and beneficence, we may 
be sure was never the intent of God, whose ways 
are just and equal ; never the intent of nature, 
whose works are also regular ; never of any people 
not wholly barbarous, whom prudence, or no more 
but human sense, would have better guided when 
they first created kings, than so to nullify and tread 
to dirt the rest of mankind, by exalting one person 
and his lineage without other merit looked after, 
but the mere contingency of a begetting, into an 
absolute and unaccountable dominion over them 

and their posterity 

He imagines his " own judicious zeal to be most 
concerned in his tuition of the Church." So 
thought Saul when he presumed to offer sacrifice, 
for which he lost his kingdom ; so thought Uzziah 
when he went into the temple, but was thrust out 
with a leprosy for his opinioned zeal, which he 
thought judicious. It is not the part of a king, 
because he ought to defend the Church, therefore 
to set himself supreme head over the Church, or 
to meddle with ecclesial government, or to de- 
fend the Church otherwise than the Church would 
be defended ; for such defence is bondage ; not to 
defend abuses, and stop all reformation, under the 



234 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

name of "new moulds fancied and fashioned to 
private designs." 

The holy things of Church are in the power of 
other keys than were delivered to his keeping. 
Christian liberty, purchased with the death of our 
Redeemer, and established by the sending of his 
free Spirit to inhabit in us, is not now to depend 
upon the doubtful consent of any earthly monarch ; 
nor to be again fettered with a presumptuous neg- 
ative voice, tyrannical to the Parliament, but much 
more tyrannical to the Church of God ; which 
was compelled to implore the aid of Parliament, to 
remove his force and heavy hands from off our 
consciences, who therefore complains now of that 
most just defensive force, because only it removed 
his violence and persecution. If this be a viola- 
tion to his conscience, that it was hindered by the 
Parliament froni violating the more tender con- 
sciences of so many thousand good Christians, let 
the usurping conscience of all tyrants be ever so 
violated ! . . . . 

This is evident, that they " who use no set 
forms of prayer," have words from their affections; 
while others are to seek affections fit and propor- 
tionable to a certain dose of prepared words ; which, 
as they are not rigorously forbid to any man's pri- 
vate infirmity, so to imprison and confine by force, 
into a pinfold of set words, those two most unim- 
prisonable things, our prayers, and that divine 
spirit of utterance that moves them, is a tyranny 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 235 

that would have longer hands than those giants 
who threatened bondage to heaven. What we 
may do in the same form of words is not so much 
the question, as whether liturgy may he forced as 
he forced it. It is true that we " pray to the same 
God " ; must we. therefore, always use the same 
words ? Let us then use but one word, because 
we pray to one God. " We profess the same 
troths ; ' : but the liturgy comprehends not all 
truths : " we read the same Scriptures," but never 
read that all those sacred expressions, all benefit 
and use of Scripture, as to public prayer, should be 
denied us, except what was barrelled up in a com- 
mon-prayer book with many mixtures of their own, 
and, which is worse, without salt. 

But suppose them savory words and unmixed, 
suppose them manna itself, yet, if they shall be 
hoarded up and enjoined us, while God every 
morning rains down new expressions into our 
hearts ; instead of being fit to use, they will be 
found, like reserved manna, rather to breed worms 
and stink. " We have the same duties upon us, 
and feel the same wants " ; yet not alwavs the 
same, nor at all times alike ; but with variety of 
circumstances, which ask variety of words, where- 
of God hath given us plenty ; not to use so copi- 
ously upon all other occasions, and so niggardly to 
him alone in our devotions. As if Christians were 
now in a worse famine of words fit for prayer, than 
was of food at the siege of Jerusalem, when per- 



236 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

haps the priests being to remove the show-bread, 
as was accustomed, were compelled every Sabbath- 
day, for want of other loaves, to bring again still 
the same. If the " Lord's Prayer " had been the 
" warrant, or the pattern of set liturgies," as is here 
affirmed, why was neither that prayer, nor any 
other set form, ever after used, or so much as men- 
tioned by the apostles, much less commended to 
our use ? Why was their care wanting in a thing 
so useful to the Church? so full of danger and 
contention to be left undone by them to other men's 
penning, of whose authority we could not be so 
certain ? Why was this forgotten by them, who 
declare that they have revealed to us the whole 
counsel of God ? who, as he left our affections to be 
guided by his sanctifying Spirit, so did he likewise 
our words to be put into us without our premedita- 
tion ; not only those cautious words to be used before 
Gentiles and tyrants, but much more those filial 
words, of which we have so frequent use in our ac- 
cess with freedom of speech to the throne of grace. 
Which to lay aside for other outward dictates of 
men, were to injure him and his perfect gift, who 
is the spirit, and giver of our ability to pray : as 
if his ministration were incomplete, and that to 
whom he gave affections, he did not also afford 
utterance to make his gift of prayer a perfect gift ; 
to them especially, whose office in the Church is to 
pray publicly. 

And although the gift were only natural, yet 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 237 

voluntary prayers are less subject to formal and 
superficial tempers than set forms. For in those, at 
least for words and matter, he who prays must con- 
sult first with his heart, which in likelihood may 
stir up his affections ; in these, having both words 
and matter ready made to his lips, which is enough 
to make up the outward act of prayer, his affec- 
tions grow lazy, and come not up easily at the call 
of words not their own. The prayer also having 
less intercourse and sympathy with a heart where- 
in it was not conceived, saves itself the labor of so 
long a journey downward, and flying up in haste 
on the specious wings of formality, if it fall not 
back again headlong, instead of a prayer which 
was expected, presents God with a set of stale and 

empty words 

We may have learnt, both from sacred history 
and times of reformation, that the kings of this 
world have both ever hated and instinctively feared 
the Church of God. Whether it be for that their 
doctrine seems much to favor two things to them 
so dreadful, liberty and equality ; or because they 
are the children of that kingdom, which, as an- 
cient prophecies have foretold, shall in the end 
break to pieces and dissolve all their great power 
and dominion. And those kings and potentates 
who have strove most to rid themselves of this fear, 
by cutting off or suppressing the true Church, have 
drawn upon themselves the occasion of their own 
ruin, while they thought with most policy to pre- 



238 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

vent it. Thus Pharaoh, when once he began to 
fear and wax jealous of the Israelites, lest they 
should multiply and fight against him, and that 
fear stirred him up to afflict and keep them under, 
as the only remedy of what he feared, soon found 
that the evil which before slept, came suddenly 
upon him, by the preposterous way he took to pre- 
vent it. 

Passing by examples between, and not shutting 
wilfully our eyes, we may see the like story brought 
to pass in our own land. This king, more than 
any before him, except perhaps his father, from his 
first entrance to the crown, harboring in his mind 
a strange fear and suspicion of men most religious, 
and their doctrine, which in his own language he 
here acknowledges, terming it " the seditious ex 
orbitancy" of ministers' tongues, and doubting 
"lest they," as he not Christianly express it, 
" should with the keys of heaven let out peace and 
loyalty from the people's hearts." Though they 
never preached or attempted aught that might 
justly raise in him such thoughts, he could not 
rest, or think himself secure, so long as they re- 
mained in any of his three kingdoms unrooted out. 

But outwardly professing the same religion with 
them, he could not presently use violence as 
Pharaoh did ; and that course had with others 
before but ill succeeded. He chooses therefore a 
more mystical way, a newer method of antichris- 
tian fraud, to the Church more dangerous; and, 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 239 

like to Balak the son of Zippor, against a nation of 
prophets thinks it best to hire other esteemed 
prophets, and to undermine and wear out the true 
Church by a false ecclesiastical policy. To this 
drift he found the government of bishops most 
serviceable ; an order in the Church, as by men 
first corrupted, so mutually corrupting them who 
receive it, both in judgment and manners. He, 
by conferring bishoprics and great livings on whom 
he thought most pliant to his will, against the 
known canons and universal practice of the ancient 
Church, whereby those elections were the people's 
right, sought, as he confesses to have " greatest 
influence upon churchmen." They on the other 
side finding themselves in a high dignity, neither 
founded by Scripture, nor allowed by reformation, 
nor supported by any spiritual gift or grace of their 
own, knew it their best course to have dependence 
only upon him ; and wrought his fancy by degrees 
to that degenerate and unkingly persuasion of " No 
bishop, no king." Whenas on the contrary all 
prelates in their own subtle sense are of another 
mind ; according to that of Pius IV., remembered 
in the history of Trent, that bishops then grow to 
be most vigorous and potent, when princes happen 
to be most weak and impotent. 

Thus when both interest of tyranny and episco- 
pacy were incorporate into each other, the king, 
whose principal safety and establishment consisted 
in the righteous execution of his civil power, and 



240 FROM EIKOXOKLASTES. 

not in bishops and their wicked counsels, fatally- 
driven on, set himself to the extirpating of those 
men whose doctrine and desire of Church-dis- 
cipline he so feared would be the undoing of his 
monarchy. And because no temporal law could 
touch the innocence of their lives, he begins with 
the persecution of their consciences, laying scan- 
dals before them : and makes that the argument to 
inflict his unjust penalties both on their bodies and 
estates. In this war against the Church, if he 
had sped so, as other haughty monarchs whom God 
heretofore hath hardened to the like enterprise, 
we ought to look up with praise and thanksgiving 
to the Author of our deliverance, to whom victory 
and power, majesty, honor, and dominion belong 
forever. 

In the mean while, from his own words we may 
perceive easily that the special motives which he 
had to endear and deprave his judgment to the 
favoring and utmost defending of episcopacy, are 
such as here we represent them ; and how unwill- 
ingly, and with what mental reservation, he con- 
descended, against his interest, to remove it out of 
the Peers' House, hath been shown already. The 
reasons, which, he affirms, wrought so much upon 
his judgment, shall be so far answered as they be 
urged 

" If the way of treaties be looked upon," in 
general, " as retiring " from bestial force to human 
reason, his first aphorism here is in part deceived. 



FROM EIKOXOKLASTES. 241 

For men niay treat like beasts as well as fight. If 
some fighting were not manlike, then either forti- 
tude were no virtue, or no fortitude in fighting. 

7 DO 

And as politicians ofttimes through dilatory pur- 
poses and emulations handle the matter, there hath 
been nowhere found more bestiality than in treat- 
ing ; which hath no more commendations in it, 
than from fighting to come to undermining, from 
violence to craft ; and when they can no longer do 

as lions, to do as foxes 

For if neither God nor nature put civil power in 
the hands of any whomsoever, but to a lawful end, 
and commands our obedience to the authority of 
law only, not to the tyrannical force of any person : 
and if the laws of our land have placed the sword 
in no man's single hand, so much as to unsheath 
against a foreign enemy, much less upon the native 
people ; but have placed it in that elective body of 
the Parliament, to whom the making, repealing, 
judging, and interpreting of law itself was also 
committed, as was fittest, so long as we intended 
to be a free nation, and not the slaves of one man's 
will ; then was the king himself disobedient and 
rebellious to that law bv which he reigned : and 
by authority of Parliament to raise arms against 
him in defence of law and liberty, we do not only 
think, but believe and know, was justifiable both 
" by the word of God, the laws of the land, and all 
lawful oaths"; and they who sided with him 
fought against all these. 

11 p 



242 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

The same allegations which he uses for himself 
and his party, may as well fit any tyrant in the 
world ; for let the Parliament be called a faction 
when the king pleases, and that no law must be 
made or changed, either civil or religious, because 
no law will content all sides, then must be made 
or changed no law at all, but what a tyrant, be he 
Protestant or Papist, thinks fit. Which tyrannous 
assertion forced upon us by the sword, he who 
fights against, and dies fighting, if his other sins 
outweigh not, dies a martyr undoubtedly both of 
the faith and of the commonwealth ; and I hold it 
not as the opinion, but as the full belief and per- 
suasion, of far holier and wiser men than parasitic 
preachers ; who, without their dinner-doctrine, 
know that neither king, law, civil oaths, nor religion, 
was ever established without the Parliament. And 
their power is the same to abrogate as to establish ; 
neither is anything to be thought established, 
which that House declares to be abolished. Where 
the Parliament sits, there inseparably sits the king, 
there the laws, there our oaths, and whatsoever 
can be civil in religion. They who fought for the 
Parliament, in the truest sense, fought for all these ; 
who fought for the king divided from his Parlia- 
ment, fought for the shadow of a king against all 
these ; and for things that were not, as if they were 
established. It were a thing monstrously absurd 
and contradictory, to give the Parliament a legis- 
lative power, and then to upbraid them for trans- 
gressing old establishments 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 243 

He would work the people to a persuasion, that 
"if he be miserable, they cannot be happy." 
What should hinder them ? Were they all born 
twins of Hippocrates with him and his fortune, one 
birth, one burial ? It were a nation miserable in- 
deed, not worth the name of a nation, but a race 
of idiots, whose happiness and welfare depended 
upon one man. The happiness of a nation consists 
in true religion, piety, justice, prudence, temper- 
ance, fortitude, and the contempt of avarice and 
ambition. They in whomsoever these virtues 
dwell eminently, need not kings to make them 
happy, but are the architects of their own happi- 
ness ; and, whether to themselves or others, are 
not less than kings 

Hitherto his meditations, now his vows ; which, 
as the vows of hypocrites used to be, are most com- 
monly absurd, and some wicked. Jacob vowed 
that God should be his God, if he granted him but 
what was necessary to perform that vow, life and 
subsistence : but the obedience proffered here is 
nothing so cheap. He, who took so heinously to 
be offered nineteen propositions from the Parlia- 
ment, capitulates here with God almost in as many 
articles. 

" If he will continue that light," or rather that 
darkness of the Gospel, which is among his prelates, 
settle their luxuries, and make them gorgeous bish- 
ops ; 

If he will " restore " the grievances and mis- 



244 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

chiefs of those obsolete and Popish laws, which the 
Parliament without his consent had abrogated, and 
will suffer justice to be executed according to his 
sense ; 

"If he will Suppress the many schisms in 
Church," to contradict himself in that which he 
had foretold must and shall come to pass, and will 
remove reformation as the greatest schism of all, 
and factions in state, by which he means in every 
leaf, the Parliament ; 

If he will "restore him " to his negative voice 
and the militia, as much as to say, to arbitrary 
power, which he wrongfully avers to be the " right 
of his predecessors " ; 

4 ' If he will turn the hearts of his people " to 
their old cathedral and parochial service in the lit- 
urgy, and their passive obedience to the king ; 

"If he will quench " the army, and withdraw 
our forces from withstanding the piracy of Rupert, 
and the plotted Irish invasion ; 

"If he will bless him with the freedom " of 
bishops again in the House of Peers, and of fugi- 
tive delinquents in the House of Commons, and 
deliver the honor of Parliament into his hands, 
from the most natural and due protection of the 
people that intrusted them with the dangerous en- 
terprise of being faithful to their country against 
the rage and malice of his tyrannous opposition ; 

" If he will keep him from that great offence,'' 
of following the counsel of his Parliament, and 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 245 

enacting what they advise him to : which in all 
reason, and by the known law, and oath of his cor- 
onation, he ought to do, and not to call that sacri- 
lege, which necessity, through the continuance of 
his own civil war, hath compelled him to ; ne- 
cessity, which made David eat the showbread, 
made Ezekiah take all the silver which was found 
in God's house, and cut off the gold which over- 
laid those doors and pillars, and gave it to Sennache- 
rib ; necessity which ofttimes made the primitive 
Church to sell her sacred utensils, even to the 
communion-chalice ; 

" If he will restore him to a capacity of glorify- 
ing him by doing " that both in Church and State, 
which must needs dishonor and pollute his name ; 

" If he will bring him again with peace, honor, 
and safety to his chief city," without repenting, 
without satisfying for the blood spilt, only for a 
few politic concessions, which are as good as noth- 
ing ; 

"If he will put again the sword into his hand, 
to punish " those that have delivered us, and to 
protect delinquents against the justice of Parlia- 
ment " ; 

Then, if it be possible to reconcile contradic- 
tions, he will praise him by displeasing him, and 
serve him by disserving him. 

" His glory," in the gaudy copes and painted 
windows, mitres, rochets, altars, and the chanted 
service-book, " shall be dearer to him," than the es- 



246 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

tablishing his crown in righteousness, and the spirit- 
ual power of religion. " He will pardon those that 
have offended him in particular " ; but there shall 
want no subtle ways to be even with them upon 
another score of their supposed offences against 
the commonwealth ; whereby he may at once af- 
fect the glory of a seeming justice, and destroy 
them pleasantly, while he feigns to forgive them 
as to his own particular, and outwardly bewails 
them. 

These are the conditions of his treating with 
God, to whom he bates nothing of what he stood 
upon with the Parliament : as if commissions of 
array could deal with him also. But of all these 
conditions, as it is now evident in our eyes, God 
accepted none, but that final petition, which he so 
oft, no doubt but by the secret judgment of God, 
importunes against his own head ; praying God, 
" That his mercies might be so toward him, as his 
resolutions of truth and peace were toward his 
people." It follows then, God having cut him 
off without granting any of these mercies, that 
his resolutions were as feigned as his vows were 
frustrate 

It being now no more in his hand to be re- 
venged on his opposers, he seeks to satiate his fan- 
cy with the imagination of some revenge upon 
them from above ; and, like one who in a drouth 
observes the sky, he sits and watches when any- 
thing will drop, that might solace him with the 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 247 

likeness of a punishment from heaven upon us; 
which he straight expounds how he pleases. No 
evil can befall the Parliament or city but he 
positively interprets it a judgment upon them 
for his sake ; as if the very manuscript of God's 
judgments had been delivered to his custody and 
exposition. But his reading declares it well to be 
a false copy which he uses ; dispensing often to his 
own bad deeds and successes the testimony of di- 
vine favor, and to the good deeds and successes of 
other men divine wrath and vengeance. 

But to counterfeit the hand of God is the bold- 
est of all forgery. And he who without warrant 
but his own fantastic surmise, takes upon him per- 
petually to unfold the secret and unsearchable 
mysteries of high providence, is likely for the 
most part to mistake and slander them ; and 
approaches to the madness of those reprobate 
thoughts that would wrest the sword of justice 
out of God's hand, and employ it more justly in 
their own conceit. It was a small thing to con- 
tend with the Parliament about the sole power of 
the militia, when we see him doing little less than 
laying hands on the weapons of God himself, 
which are his judgments, to wield and manage 
them by the sway and bent of his own frail cogi- 
tations. Therefore " they that by tumults first 
occasioned the raising of armies " in his doom 
must needs " be chastened by their own army for 
new tumults." 



248 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

" He cannot but observe this divine justice, yet 
with sorrow and pity." But sorrow and pity in a 
weak and over-mastered enemy is looked upon no 
otherwise than as the ashes of his revenge burnt 
out upon himself, or as the damp of a cooled fury, 
when we say, it gives. But in this manner to sit 
spelling and observing divine justice upon every 
accident and slight disturbance that may happen 
humanly to the affairs of men, is but another frag- 
ment of his broken revenge ; and yet the shrewd- 
est and the cunningest obloquy that can be thrown 
upon their actions. For if he can persuade men 
that the Parliament and their cause is pursued 
with divine vengeance, he hath attained his end, 
to make all men forsake them, and think the worst 
that can be thought of them. 

Nor is he only content to suborn divine justice 
in his censure of what is past, but he assumes the 
person of Christ himself, to prognosticate over us 
what he wishes would come. So little is anything 
or person sacred from him, no not in heaven, which 
he will not use, and put on, if it may serve him 
plausibly to wreak his spleen, or ease his mind 
upon the Parliament. Although, if ever fatal 
blindness did both attend and punish wilfulness, if 
ever any enjoyed not comforts for neglecting coun- 
sel belonging to their peace, it was in none more 
conspicuously brought to pass than in himself; and 
his predictions against the Parliament and their 
adherents have for the most part been verified 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 249 

upon his own head, and upon his chief counsel- 
lors 

It is a rule and principle worthy to be known 
by Christians, that no Scripture, no, nor so much 
as any ancient creed, binds our faith, or our obe- 
dience to any church whatsoever, denominated by 
a particular name ; far less, if it be distinguished 
by a several government from that which is indeed 
catholic. No man was ever bid be subject to the 
church of Corinth, Rome, or Asia, but to the 
Church without addition, as it held faithful to the 
rules of Scripture, and the government established 
in all places by the Apostles ; which at first was 
universally the same in all churches and congrega- 
tions ; not differing or distinguished by the diver- 
sity of countries, territories, or civil bounds. That 
church, that from the name of a distinct place takes 
authority to set up a distinct faith or government, 
is a schism and faction, not a church. It were an 
injury to condemn the Papist of absurdity and con- 
tradiction, for adhering to his Catholic Romish 
religion, if we, for the pleasure of a king and his 
politic considerations, shall adhere to a Catholic 
English 

It happened once, as we find in Esdras and 

Josephus, authors not less believed than any under 

sacred, to be a great and solemn debate in the 

court of Darius, what thing was to be counted 

strongest of all other. He that could resolve this, 

in reward of his excellent wisdom, should be clad 
11* 



250 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

in purple, drink in gold, sleep on a bed of gold, 
and sit next Darius. None but they, doubtless, 
who were reputed wise, had the question pro- 
pounded to them; who, after some respite given 
them by the king to consider, in full assembly of 
all his lords and gravest counsellors, returned sev- 
erally what they thought. The first held that 
wine was strongest ; another, that the king was 
strongest; but Zorobabel, prince of the captive 
Jews, and heir to the crown of Judah, being one 
of them, proved women to be stronger than the 
king, for that he himself had seen a concubine 
take his crown from off his head to set it upon her 
own ; and others beside him have likewise seen 
the like feat done, and not in jest. Yet he proved 
on, and it was so yielded by the king himself, and 
all his sages, that neither wine, nor women, nor 
the king, but truth of all other things was the 
strongest. 

For me, though neither asked, nor in a na- 
tion that gives such rewards to wisdom, I shall 
pronounce my sentence somewhat different from 
Zorobabel ; and shall defend that either truth and 
justice are all one, (for truth is but justice in our 
knowledge, and justice is but truth in our prac- 
tice ;) and he indeed so explains himself, in saying 
that with truth is no accepting of persons, which 
is the property of justice, or else if there be any 
odds, that justice, though not stronger than truth, 
yet by her office, is to put forth and exhibit more 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 251 

strength in the affairs of mankind. For truth is 
properly no more than contemplation ; and her 
utmost efficiency is but teaching: but justice in 
her very essence is all strength and activity ; and 
hath a sword put into her hand, to use against all 
violence and oppression on the earth. She it is 
most truly, who accepts no person, and exempts 
none from the severity of her stroke. She never 
suffers injury to prevail, but when falsehood first 
prevails over truth ; and that also is a kind of 
justice done on them who are so deluded. Though 
wicked kings and tyrants counterfeit her sword, as 
some did that buckler fabled to fall from heaven 
into the capitol, yet she communicates her power 
to none but such as, like herself, are just, or at 
least will do justice. For it were extreme partiality 
and injustice, the flat denial and overthrow of her- 
self, to put her own authentic sword into the hand 
of an unjust and wicked man, or so far to accept 
and exalt one mortal person above his equals, that 
he alone shall have the punishing of all other men 
transgressing, and not receive like punishment from 
men, when he himself shall be found the highest 
transgressor. 

We may conclude, therefore, that justice, above 
all other things, is and ought to be the strongest ; 
she is the strength, the kingdom, the power, and 
majesty of all ages. Truth herself would subscribe 
to this, though Darius and all the monarchs of the 
world should deny. And if by sentence thus writ- 



252 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

ten it were my happiness to set free the minds of 
Englishmen from longing to return poorly under 
that captivity of kings from which the strength and 
supreme sword of justice hath delivered them, I 
shall have done a work not much inferior to that 
of Zorobabel ; who, by well-praising and extolling 
the force of truth, in that contemplative strength 
conquered Darius, and freed his country and the 
people of God from the captivity of Babylon. 
Which I shall yet not despair to do, if they in this 
land, whose minds are yet captive, be but as in- 
genuous to acknowledge the strength and suprem- 
acy of justice, as that heathen king was to confess 
the strength of truth : or let them but, as he did, 
grant that, and they will soon perceive that truth 
resigns all her outward strength to justice : justice 
therefore must needs be strongest, both in her own, 
and in the strength of truth. But if a king may 
do among men whatsoever is his will and pleasure, 
and notwithstanding be unaccountable to men, 
then, contrary to his magnified wisdom of Zorob- 
abel, neither truth nor justice, but the king, is 
strongest of all other things, which that Persian 
monarch himself, in the midst of all his pride and 

glory, durst not assume 

So much he thinks to abound in his own defence, 
that he undertakes an unmeasurable task, to be- 
speak "the singular care and protection of God 
over all kings," as being the greatest patrons of 
law, justice, order, and religion on earth. But 



FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 253 

what patrons they be, God in the Scripture oft 
enough hath expressed ; and the earth itself hath 
too long groaned under the burden of their injus- 
tice, disorder, and irreligion. Therefore " to bind 
their kings in chains, and their nobles with links 
of iron," is an honor belonging to his saints ; not 
to build Babel, (which was Nimrod's work, the 
first king, and the beginning of his kingdom was 
Babel,) but to destroy it, especially that spiritual 
Babel : and first to overcome those European 
kings, which receive their power, not from God, 
but from the beast ; and are counted no better than 
his ten horns. " These shall hate the great whore," 
and yet "shall give their kingdoms to the beast 
that carries her; they shall commit fornication 
with her," and yet " shall burn her with fire," 
and yet " shall lament the fall of Babylon," where 
they fornicated with her. Rev. xvii. xviii. 

Thus shall they be to and fro, doubtful and 
ambiguous in all their doings, until at last, "join- 
ing their armies with the beast," whose power first 
raised them, they shall perish with him by the 
" King of kings," against whom they have re- 
belled ; and " the fowls shall eat their flesh." 
This is their doom written, Rev. xix., and the 
utmost that we find concerning them in these latter 
days ; which we have much more cause to believe, 
than his unwarranted revelation here, prophesying 
what shall follow after his death, with the spirit of 
enmity, not of St. John. 



254 FROM EIKONOKLASTES. 

He would fain bring us out of conceit with the 
good success, which God vouchsafed us. We 
measure not our cause by our success, but our 
success by our cause. Yet certainly in a good 
cause success is a good confirmation ; for God 
hath promised it to good men almost in every leaf 
of Scripture. If it argue not for us, we are sure 
it argues not against us ; but as much or more for 
us, than ill success argues for them; for to the 
wicked God hath denounced ill success in all they 
take in hand. 





FROM 

A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF 
ENGLAND, 

IN ANSWER TO 

SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 

r LTHOUGH I fear, lest, if in defend- 
ing the people of England, I should be 
as copious in words, and empty of mat- 
ter, as most men think Salmasius has 
been in his defence of the king, I might seem to 
deserve justly to be accounted a verbose and silly 
defender ; yet since no man thinks himself obliged 
to make so much haste, though in the handling 
but of any ordinary subject, as not to premise 
some introduction at least, according as the weight 
of the subject requires ; if I take the same course 
in handling almost the greatest subject that ever 
was (without being too tedious in it) I am in hopes 
of attaining two things, which indeed I earnestly 
desire : the one, not to be at all wanting, as far as 
in me lies, to this most noble cause and most wor- 
thy to be recorded to all future ages ; the other, 
that I may appear to have myself avoided that 



256 FROM A DEFENCE OF 

frivolousness of matter, and redundancy of words, 
which I blame in my antagonist. For I am about 
to discourse of matters neither inconsiderable nor 
common, but how a most potent king, after he had 
trampled upon the laws of the nation, and given a 
shock to its religion, and began to rule at his own 
will and pleasure, was at last subdued in the field 
by his own subjects, who had undergone a long 
slavery under him ; how afterwards he was cast 
into prison, and when he gave no ground, either 
by words or actions, to hope better things of him, 
was finally by the supreme council of the kingdom 
condemned to die, and beheaded before the very 
gates of the royal palace. I shall likewise relate 
(which will much conduce to the easing men's 
minds of a great superstition) by what right, es- 
pecially according to our law, this judgment was 
given, and all these matters, transacted ; and shall 
easily defend my valiant and worthy countrymen 
(who have extremely well deserved of all subjects 
and nations in the world) from the most wicked 
calumnies both of domestic and foreign railers, and 
especially from the reproaches of this most vain and 
empty sophist, who sets up for a captain and ring- 
leader to all the rest. For what king's majesty, 
sitting upon an exalted throne, ever shone so bright- 
ly, as that of the people of England then did, when, 
shaking off that old superstition, which had pre- 
vailed a long time, they gave judgment upon the 
king himself, or rather upon an enemy who had 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 257 

been their king, caught as it were in a net by his 
own laws, (who alone of all mortals challenged to 
himself impunity by a divine right,) and scrupled 
not to inflict the same punishment upon him, being 
guilty, which he would have inflicted upon any 
other? But why do I mention these things as 
performed by the people, winch almost open their 
voice themselves, and testify the presence of God 
throughout ? who, as often as it seems good to his 
infinite wisdom, uses to throw down proud and un- 
ruly kings, exalting themselves above the condition 
of human nature, and utterly to extirpate them 
and all their family. By his manifest impulse 
being set at work to recover our almost lost liber- 
ty, following him as our guide, and adoring the im- 
presses of his divine power manifested upon all 
occasions, we went on in no obscure, but an illus- 
trious passage, pointed out and made plain to us by 
God himself. Which things, if I should so much 
as hope by any diligence or ability of mine, such 
as it is, to discourse of as I ought to do, and to 
commit them so to writing, as that perhaps all na- 
tions and all ages may read them, it would be a 
very vain thing in me. For what style can be au- 
gust and magnificent enough, what man has ability 
sufficient, to undertake so great a task ? Since we 
find by experience, that in so many ages as are 
gone over the world, there has been but here and 
there a man found, who has been able worthily to 
recount the actions of great heroes, and potent 

Q 



258 FROM A DEFENCE OF 

states ; can any man have so good an opinion of 
his own talents, as to think himself capable of 
reaching these glorious and wonderful works of 
Almighty God, by any language, by any style of 
his ? Which enterprise, though some of the most 
eminent persons in our commonwealth have pre- 
vailed upon me by their authority to undertake, 
and would have it be my business to vindicate with 
my pen against envy and calumny (which are 
proof against arms) those glorious performances 
of theirs, (whose opinion of me I take as a very 
great honor, that they should pitch upon me 
before others to be serviceable in this kind of those 
most valiant deliverers of my native country ; and 
true it is, that from my very youth, I have been 
bent extremely upon such sort of studies, as in- 
clined me, if not to do great things myself, at least 
to celebrate those that did,) yet as having no con- 
fidence in any such advantages, I have recourse to 
the divine assistance ; and invoke the great and 
holy God, the giver of all good gifts, that I may as 
substantially, and as truly, discourse and refute the 
sauciness and lies of this foreign declaimer, as our 
noble generals piously and successfully by force of 
arms broke the king's pride, and his unruly domi- 
neering, and afterwards put an end to both by in- 
flicting a memorable punishment upon himself, and 
as thoroughly as a single person did with ease but 
of late confute and confound the king himself, ris- 
ing as it were from the grave, and recommending 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 259 

himself to the people in a book published after his 
death, with new artifices and allurements of words 

and expressions 

" A horrible message had lately struck our ears, 
but our minds more, with a heinous wound con- 
cerning a parricide committed in England in the 
person of a king, by a wicked conspiracy of sacri- 
legious men." Indeed that horrible message must 
either have had a much longer sword than that 
which Peter drew, or those ears must have been of 
a wonderful length, that it could wound at such a 
distance ; for it could not so much as in the least 
offend any ears but those of an ass. For what 
harm is it to you, that are foreigners ? are any of 
you hurt by it, if we amongst ourselves put our 
own enemies, our own traitors to death, be they 
commoners, noblemen, or kings ? Do you, Sal- 
masius, let alone what does not concern you : for I 
have a horrible message to bring of you too ; which 
I am mistaken if it strike not a more heinous 
wound into the ears of all grammarians and critics, 
provided they have any learning and delicacy in 
them, to wit, your crowding so many barbarous 
expressions together in one period in the person 
of (Aristarchus) a grammarian ; and that so great 
a critic as you, hired at the king's charge to write 
a defence of the king his father, should not only 
set so fulsome a preface before it, much like those 
lamentable ditties that used to be sung at funerals, 
and which can move compassion in none but a cox- 



260 FROM A DEFENCE OF 

comb ; but in the very first sentence should provoke 
your readers to laughter with so many barbarisms 
all at once. " Persona regis," you cry. Where 
do you find any such Latin ? or are you telling 
us some tale or other of a Perki?i Warbec, who, 
taking upon him the person of a king, has, for- 
sooth, committed some horrible parricide in Eng- 
land ? which expression, though dropping carelessly 
from your pen, has more truth in it than you 
are aware of. For a tyrant is but like a king 
upon a stage, a man in a visor, and acting the part 
of a king in a play ; he is not really a king. But 
as for these Gallicisms, that are so frequent in 
your book, I won't lash you for them myself, for I 
am not at leisure ; but shall deliver you over to 
your fellow-grammarians, to be laughed to scorn 
and whipped by them 

Men at first united into civil societies, that they 
might live safely, and enjoy their liberty, without 
being wronged or oppressed ; and that they might 
live religiously, and according to the doctrine of 
Christianity, they united themselves into churches. 
Civil societies have laws, and churches have a 
discipline peculiar to themselves, and far differing 
from each other. And this has been the occasion 
of so many wars in Christendom ; to wit, because 
the civil magistrate and the Church confounded 
their jurisdictions 

You are in perfect darkness, that make no dif- 
ference betwixt a paternal power, and a regal ; and 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 261 

that when you had called kings fathers of their 
country, could fancy that with that metaphor you 
had persuaded us, that whatever is applicable to a 
father, is so to a king. Alas ! there is a great dif- 
ference betwixt them. Our fathers begot us. Our 
king made not us, but we him. Nature has given 
fathers to us all, but we ourselves appointed our 
own king. * So that the people is not for the king, 
but the king for them. " We bear with a father, 
though he be harsh and severe " ; and so we do 
with a king. But we do not bear with a father, 
if he be a tyrant. If a father murder his son, he 
himself must die for it ; and why should not a king 
be subject to the same law, which certainly is a 
most just one ? especially considering that a father 
cannot by any possibility divest himself of that re- 
lation, but a king may easily make himself neither 
king nor father of his people. If this action of 
ours be considered according to its quality, as you 
call it, I, who am both an Englishman born, and 
was an eye-witness of the transactions of these 
times, tell you, who are both a foreigner and an 
utter stranger to our affairs, that we have put to 
death neither a good, nor a just, nor a merciful, 
nor a devout, nor a godly, nor a peaceable king, as 
you style him ; but an enemy, that has been so to 
us almost ten years to an end ; nor one that was a 

father, but a destroyer to his country 

That it is lawful to depose a tyrant, and to pun- 
ish him according to his deserts ; nay, that this is 



262 FROM A DEFENCE OF 

the opinion of very eminent divines, and of such as 
have been most instrumental in the late reforma- 
tion, do you deny it if you dare. You confess, 
that many kings have come to an unnatural death ; 
some by the sword, some poisoned, some strangled, 
and some in a dungeon ; but for a king to be ar- 
raigned in a court of judicature, to be put to plead 
for his life, to have sentence of death pronounced 
against him, and that sentence executed ; this you 
think a more lamentable instance than all the rest, 
and make it a prodigious piece of impiety. Tell me, 
thou superlative fool, whether it be not more just, 
more agreeable to the rules of humanity, and the 
laws of all human societies, to bring a criminal, be 
his offence what it will, before a court of justice, to 
give him leave to speak for himself; and, if the 
law condemn him, then to put him to death as he 
has deserved, so as he may have time to repent or 
to recollect himself; than presently, as soon as ever 
he is taken, to butcher him without more ado ? 
Do you think there is a malefactor in the world, 
that if he might have his choice, would not choose 
to be thus dealt withal ? And if this sort of pro- 
ceeding against a private person be accounted the 
fairer of the two, why should it not be counted so 
against a prince ? Nay, why should we not think, 
that himself liked it better ? You would have had 
him killed privately, and none to have seen it, 
either that future ages might have lost the advan- 
tage of so good an example ; or that they that did 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 263 

this glorious action, might seem to have avoided 
the light, and to have acted contrary to law and 
justice. You aggravate the matter by telling us, 
that it was not done in an uproar, or brought about 
by any faction amongst great men, or in the heat 
of a rebellion, either of the people or the soldiers : 
that there was no hatred, no fear, no ambition, no 
blind precipitate rashness in the case ; but that it 
was long consulted on, and done with deliberation. 
You did well in leaving off being an Advocate, 
and turn grammarian, who, from the accidents and 
circumstances of a thing, which in themselves con- 
sidered sway neither one way nor other, argue in 
dispraise of it, before you have proved the thing 
itself to be either good or bad. See how open you 
lie : if the action you are discoursing of be com- 
mendable and praiseworthy, they that did it de- 
serve the greater honor, in that they were pre- 
possessed with no passions, but did what they 
did for virtue's sake. If there were great diffi- 
culty in the enterprise, they did well in not going 
about it rashly, but upon advice and consideration. 
Though for my own part, when I call to mind 
with how unexpected an importunity and fervency 
of mind, and with how unanimous a consent, the 
whole army, and a great part of the people from 
almost every county in the kingdom, cried out with 
one voice for justice against the king, as being the 
sole author of all their calamities, I cannot but 
think, that these things were brought about by a 



264 FROM A DEFENCE OF 

divine impulse. Whatever the matter was, wheth- 
er we consider the magistrates, or the body of the 
people, no men ever undertook with more courage, 
and, which our adversaries themselves confess, in 
a more sedate temper of mind, so brave an action ; 
an action that might have become those famous he- 
roes, of whom we read in former ages ; an action, 
by which they ennobled not only laws, and their 
execution, which seem for the future equally re- 
stored to high and low against one another ; but 
even justice, and to have rendered it, after so sig- 
nal a judgment, more illustrious and greater than 
in its own self. .... 

If whatever a king has a mind to do, the right 
of kings will bear him out in, (which was a lesson 
that the bloody tyrant, Antoninus Caracalla, though 
his step-mother Julia preached it to him, and en- 
deavored to inure him to the practice of it, by 
making him commit incest with herself, yet could 
hardly suck in,) then there neither is, nor ever 
was, that king, that deserved the name of a tyrant. 
They may safely violate all the laws of God and 
man : their very being kings keeps them innocent. 
What crime was ever any of them guilty of? 
They did but make use of their own right upon 
their own vassals. No king can commit such 
horrible cruelties and outrages, as will not be 
within this right of kings. So that there is no 
pretence left for any complaints or expostulations 
with any of them. And dare you assert, that 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 265 

" this right of kings," as you call it, " is grounded 
upon the law of nations, or rather upon that of 
nature," you brute beast? for you deserve not 
the name of a man, that are so cruel and unjust 
towards all those of your own kind ; that en- 
deavor, as much as in you lies, so to bear down 
and vilify the whole race of mankind, that were 
made after the image of God, as to assert and 
maintain, those cruel and unmerciful taskmasters, 
that through the superstitious whimsies, or sloth, 
or treachery of some persons, get into the chair, 
are provided and appointed by nature herself, that 
mild and gentle mother of us all, to be the gov- 
ernors of those nations they enslave. By which 
pestilent doctrine of yours, having rendered them 
more fierce and untractable, you not only enable 
them to make havoc of, and trample under foot, 
their miserable subjects ; but endeavor to arm them 
for that very purpose with the law of nature, the 
right of kings, and the very constitutions of gov- 
ernment, than which nothing can be more impious 

or ridiculous 

I confess there are but few, and those men of 
great wisdom and courage, that are either desirous 
of liberty, or capable of using it. The greatest 
part of the world choose to live under masters ; 
but yet they would have them just ones. As for 
such as are unjust and tyrannical, neither was God 
ever so much an enemy to mankind, as to enjoin a 
necessity of submitting to them ; nor was there 
12 



266 FROM A DEFENCE OF 

ever any people so destitute of all sense, and sunk 
into such a depth of despair, as to impose so cruel 
a law upon themselves and their posterity 

If one should consider attentively the coun- 
tenance of a man, and inquire after whose image 
so noble a creature were framed, would not any 
one that heard him presently make answer, that 
he was made after the image of God himself? 
Being therefore peculiarly God's own, and con- 
sequently things that are to be given to him, we 
are entirely free by nature, and cannot without 
the greatest sacrilege imaginable be reduced into a 
condition of slavery to any man, especially to a 
wicked, unjust, cruel tyrant 

Every good emperor acknowledged that the 
laws of the empire, and the authority of the sen- 
ate, was above himself; and the same principle 
and notion of government has obtained all along 
in civilized nations. Pindar, as he is cited by 
Herodotus, calls the law iravrmv ftaaikea, king over 
all. Orpheus in his hymns calls it the king both 
of gods and men : and he gives the reason why it is 
so ; because, says he, it is that that sits at the helm 
of all human affairs. Plato in his book De Legi- 
bus calls it to /cparovv ev rrj jroXei, : that that ought 
to have the greatest sway in the commonwealth. 
In his epistles he commends that form of govern- 
ment in which the law is made lord and master, 
and no scope given to any man to tyrannize over 
the laws. Aristotle is of the same opinion in his 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 267 

Politics ; and so is Cicero in his book De Legibus, 
that the laws ought to govern the magistrates, as 
they do the people. The law therefore having 
always been accounted the highest power on earth, 
by the judgment of the most learned and wise men 
that ever were, and by the constitutions of the 
best-ordered states ; and it being very certain that 
the doctrine of the Gospel is neither contrary to 
reason, nor the law of nations, that man is truly 
and properly subject to the higher powers, who 
obeys the law and the magistrates, so far as they 
govern according to law. So that St. Paul does 
not only command the people, but princes them- 
selves, to be in subjection ; who are not above the 
laws, but bound by them : " for there is no power 
but of God " : that is, no form, no lawful constitu- 
tion of any government. The most ancient laws 
that are known to us were formerly ascribed to 
God as their author. For the law, says Cicero in 
his Philippics, is no other than a rule of well- 
grounded reason, derived from God himself, enjoin- 
ing whatever is just and right, and forbidding the 
contrary. So that the institution of magistracy is 
jure Divino, and the end of it is, that mankind 
might live under certain laws, and be governed by 
them. But what particular form of government 
each nation would live under, and what persons 
should be intrusted with the magistracy, without 

doubt, was left to the choice of each nation 

Do you pretend that kings are infallible? If 



268 FROM A DEFENCE OF 

you do not, why do you make them omnipotent ? 
And how comes it to pass, that an unlimited power 
in one man should be accounted less destructive 
to temporal things than it is to ecclesiastical ? Or 
do you think that God takes no care at all of civil 
affairs ? If he takes none himself, I am sure he 
does not forbid us to take care which way they go ; 
if he does take any care about them, certainly he 
would have the same reformation made in the com- 
monwealth, that he would have made in the Church, 
especially it being obvious to every man's expe- 
rience, that infallibility and omnipotency being 
arrogated to one man, are equally mischievous in 
both. God has not so modelled the government 
of the world as to make it the duty of any civil 
community to submit to the cruelties of tyrants, 
and yet to leave the Church at liberty to free 
themselves from slavery and tyranny ; nay, rather 
quite contrary, he has put no arms into the Church's 
hand but those of patience and innocence, prayer 
and ecclesiastical discipline ; but in the common- 
wealth, all the magistracy are by him entrusted 
with the preservation and execution of the laws, 
with the power of punishing and revenging : he 

has put the sword into their hands 

Though I am of opinion, Salmasius, and always 
was, that the law of God does exactly agree with 
the law of nature ; so that, having shown what the 
law of God is, with respect to princes, and what 
the practice has been of the people of God, both 



TEE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 269 

Jews and Christians, I have at the same time, and 
by the same discourse, made appear what is most 
agreeable to the law of nature ; yet because you 
pretend "to confute us most powerfully by the 
law of nature," I will be content to admit that to 
be necessary, which before I had thought would be 
superfluous, that in this chapter I may demonstrate, 
that nothing is more suitable to the law of nature, 
than that punishment be inflicted upon tyrants. 
Which if I do not evince, I will then agree with 
you, that likewise by the law of God they are ex- 
empt. I do not purpose to frame a long discourse 
of nature in general, and the original of civil 
societies ; that argument has been largely handled 
by many learned men, both Greek and Latin. But 
I shall endeavor to be as short as may be ; and my 
design is not so much to confute you, (who would 
willingly have spared this pains,) as to show that 
you confute yourself, and destroy your own po- 
sitions. I will begin with that first position, which 
you lay down as a fundamental, and that shall be 
the groundwork of my ensuing discourse. " The 
law of nature," say you, " is a principle imprinted 
on all men's minds, to regard the good of all man- 
kind, considering men as united together in socie- 
ties. But this innate principle cannot procure that 
common good, unless, as there are people that 
must be governed, so that very principle ascertain 
who shall govern them." To wit, lest the stronger 
oppress the weaker, and those persons, who, for 



270 FROM A DEFENCE OF 

their mutual safety and protection have united 
themselves together, should be disunited and 
divided by injury and violence, and reduced to a 
bestial savage life again. This I suppose is what 
you mean. " Out of the number of those that 
united into one body," you say, "there must 
needs have been some chosen, who excelled the 
rest in wisdom and valor ; that they, either by force 
or by persuasion, might restrain those that were 
refractory, and keep them within due bounds. 
Sometimes it would so fall out, that one single per- 
son, whose conduct and valor was extraordinary, 
might be able to do this, and sometimes more 
assisted one another with their advice and counsel. 
But since it is impossible that any one man should 
order all things himself, there was a necessity of his 
consulting with others, and taking some into part 
of the government with himself; so that whether 
a single person reign, or whether the supreme 
power reside in the body of the people, since it is 
impossible that all should administer the affairs of 
the commonwealth, or that any one man should do 
all, the government does always lie upon the 
shoulders of many." And afterwards you say, 
" both forms of government, whether by many or 
a few, or by a single person, are equally according 
to the law of nature, viz., That it is impossible for 
any single person so to govern alone, as not to 
admit others into a share of the government with 
himself." Though I might have taken all this out 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 271 

of the third book of Aristotle's Politics, I chose 
rather to transcribe it out of your own book ; for 
you stole it from him as Prometheus did fire from 
Jupiter, to the ruin of monarchy, and overthrow 
of yourself and your own opinion. For inquire as 
diligently as you can for your life into the law of 
nature, as you have described it, you will not find 
the least footstep in it of kingly power, as you 
explain it. " The law of nature," say you, " in 
ordering who should govern others, respected the 
universal good of all mankind." It did not then 
regard the private good of any particular person, 
not of a prince ; so that the king is for the people, 
and consequently the people superior to him : 
which being allowed, it is impossible that princes 
should have any right to oppress or enslave the 
people ; that the inferior should have right to 
tyrannize over the superior. So that since kings 
cannot pretend to any right to do mischief, the 
right of the people must be acknowledged, accord- 
ing to the law of nature, to be superior to that of 
princes; and therefore, by the same right, that 
before kingship was known, men united their 
strength and counsels for their mutual safety and 
defence ; by the same right, that for the preserva- 
tion of all men's liberty, peace, and safety, they 
appointed one or more to govern the rest ; by the 
same right they may depose those very persons 
whom for their valor or wisdom they advanced to 
the government, or any others that rule disorderly, 



272 FROM A DEFENCE OF 

if they find them, by reason of their slothfnlness, 
folly, or impiety, unfit for government: since 
nature does not regard the good of one, or of a 
few, but of all in general. For what sort of per- 
sons were they whom you suppose to have been 
chosen ? You say, " They were such as excelled 
in courage and conduct," to wit, such as by nature 
seemed fittest for government ; who by reason of 
their excellent wisdom and valor were enabled to 
undertake so great a charge. The consequence of 
this I take to be, that right of succession is not by 
the law of nature ; that no man by the law of na- 
ture has right to be king, unless he excel all others 
in wisdom and courage ; that all such as reign and 
want these qualifications, are advanced to the gov- 
ernment by force or faction, have no right by the 
law of nature to be what they are, but ought 
rather to be slaves than princes. For nature ap- 
points that wise men should govern fools, not that 
wicked men should rule over good men, fools over 
wise men ; and consequently they that take the 
government out of such men's hands, act according 
to the law of nature. To what end nature directs 
wise men should bear the rule, you shall hear in 
your own words : viz. " That by force or by per- 
suasion, they may keep such as are unruly within 
due bounds." But how should he keep others 
within the bounds of their duty, that neglects, or 
is ignorant of, or wilfully acts contrary to his own ? 
Allege now, if you can, any dictate of nature by 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 273 

which we are enjoined to neglect the wise institu- 
tions of this law of nature, and have no regard to 
them in civil and public concerns, when we see 
what great and admirable things nature herself 
effects in things that are inanimate and void of 
sense, rather than lose her end. Produce any 
rule of nature, or natural justice, by which inferior 
criminals ought ? to be punished, but kings and 
princes to go unpunished ; and not only so, but 
though guilty of the greatest crimes imaginable, 
be had in reverence and almost adored. You 
agree, that " all forms of government, whether by 
many, or few, or by a single person, are equally 
agreeable to the law of nature." So that the per- 
son of a king is not by the law of nature more 
sacred than a senate of nobles, or magistrates, 
chosen from amongst the common people, who you 
grant may be punished, and ought to be if they 
offend ; and consequently, kings ought to be so 
too, who are appointed to rule for the very same 
end and purpose that other magistrates are. " For," 
say you, " nature does not allow any single person 
to rule so entirely, as not to have partners in the 
government." It does not therefore allow of a 
monarch ; it does not allow one single person to 
rule so, as that all others should be in a slavish 

subjection to his commands only 

It is not to the purpose for us here to dispute 
which form of government is best, by one single 
person, or by many. I confess many eminent and 

12* R 



274 FROM A DEFENCE OF 

famous men have extolled monarchy; but it has 
always been upon this supposition, that the prince 
was a very excellent person, and one that of all 
others deserved best to reign ; without which sup- 
position, no form of government can be so prone 
to tyranny as monarchy is. And whereas you 
resemble a monarchy to the government of the 
world by one Divine Being, I pray answer me, 
whether you think that any other can deserve to 
be invested with a power here on earth, that shall 
resemble his power that governs the world, except 
such a person as does infinitely excel all other 
men, and both for wisdom and goodness in some 
measure resemble the Deity ? and such a person, 
in my opinion, none can be but the Son of God 
himself. .... 

What principles, what law, what religion ever 
taught men rather to consult their ease, to save 
their money, their blood, nay, their lives them- 
selves, than to oppose an enemy with force ? for I 
make no difference between a foreign enemy and 
another, since both are equally dangerous and 
destructive to the good of the whole nation. The 
people of Israel saw very well, that they could not 
possibly punish the Benjamites for murdering the 
Levite's wife, without the loss of many men's 
lives : and did that induce them to sit still ? Was 
that accounted a sufficient argument why they 
should abstain from war, from a very bloody civil 
war ? Did they therefore suffer the death of one 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 275 

poor woman to be unrevenged ? Certainly if na- 
ture teaches us rather to endure the government 
of a king, though he be never so bad, than to 
endanger the lives of a great many men in the 
recovery of our liberty ; it must teach us likewise 
not only to endure a kingly government, which is 
the only one that you argue ought to be submitted 
to, but even an aristocracy and a democracy : nay, 
and sometimes it will persuade us, to submit to a 
multitude of highwaymen, and to slaves that mu- 
tiny. Fulvius and Rupilius, if your principles had 
been received in their days, must not have engaged 
in the servile war (as their writers call it) after the 
Prsetorian armies were slain ; Crassus must not 
have marched against Spartacus, after the rebels 
had destroyed one Roman army, and spoiled their 
tents ; nor must Pompey have undertaken the 
Piratic war. But the state of Rome must have 
pursued the dictates of nature, and must have sub- 
mitted to their own slaves, or to the pirates, rather 
than run the hazard of losing some men's lives. 
You do not prove at all, that nature has imprinted 
any such notion as this of yours on the minds of 
men : and yet you cannot forbear boding us ill 
luck, and denouncing the wrath of God against us, 
(which may heaven divert, and inflict it upon 
yourself, and all such prognosticators as you !) who 
have punished as he deserved, one that had the 
name of our king, but was in fact our implacable 
enemy ; and we have made atonement for the 



276 FROM A DEFENCE OF 

death of so many of our countrymen, as our civil 
wars have occasioned, by shedding his blood, that 

was the author and cause of them 

After having discoursed upon the law of God 
and of nature, and handled both so untowardly, 
that you have got nothing by the bargain but a 
deserved reproach of ignorance and knavery, I 
cannot apprehend what you can have further to 
allege in defence of your royal cause, but mere 
trifles. I for my part hope I have given satisfac- 
tion already to all good and learned men, and done 
this noble cause right, should I break off here ; 
yet lest I should seem to any to decline your variety 
of arguing and ingenuity, rather than your im- 
moderate impertinence and tittle-tattle, I will 
follow you wherever you have a mind to go ; but 
with such brevity as shall make it appear, that 
after having performed whatever the necessary 
defence of the cause required, if not what the dig- 
nity of it merited, I now do but comply with some 
men's expectation, if not their curiosity. "Now," 
say you, " I shall allege other and greater argu- 
ments." What ! greater arguments than what the 
law of God and nature afforded? Help, Lucina! 
the mountain Salmasius is in labor ! It is not for 
nothing that he has got a she-husband. Mortals, 
expect some extraordinary birth. " If he that is, 
and is called a king, might be accused before any 
other power, that power must of necessity be great- 
er than that of the king ; and if so, then must that 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 277 

power be indeed the kingly power, arid ought to 
have the name of it : for a kingly power is thus 
defined; to wit, the supreme power in the state 
residing in a single person, and which has no 
superior." O ridiculous birth ! a mouse crept out 
of the mountain ! help, grammarians ! one of your 
number is in danger of perishing ! the law of God 
and of nature are safe ; but Salmasius's dictionary 
is undone. What if I should answer you thus? 
That words ought to give place to things ; that w r e, 
having taken away kingly government itself, do 
not think ourselves concerned about its name and 
definition ; let others look to that, who are in love 
with kings : we are contented with the enjoyment 
of our liberty; such an answer would be good 
enough for you. But to let you see that I deal 
fairly with you throughout, I will answer you, not 
only from my own, but from the opinion of very 
wise and good men, who have thought that the 
name and power of a king are -very consistent with 
a power in the people and the law superior to that 
of the king himself. In the first place, Lycurgus, 
a man very eminent for wisdom, designing, as 
Plato says, to secure a kingly government as well 
as it was possible, could find no better expedient to 
preserve it, than by making the power of the sen- 
ate, and of the Ephori, that is, the power of the 
people, superior to it. Theseus, in Euripides, king 
of Athens, was of the same opinion ; for he to his 
great honor restored the people to their liberty, 



278 FROM A DEFENCE OF 

and advanced the power of the people above that 
of the king, and yet left the regal power in that 
city to his posterity. Whence Euripides, in his 
play called " The Suppliants," introduces him 
speaking on this manner: "I have advanced the 
people themselves into the throne, having freed 
the city from slavery, and admitted the people to 
a share in the government, by giving them an 
equal right of suffrage." And in another place to 
the herald of Thebes : "In the first place," says 
he, " you begin your speech, friend, with a thing 
that is not true, in styling me a monarch : for this 
city is not governed by a single person, but is a 
free state ; the people reigns here." These were 
his words, when at the same time he was both 
called and really was king there. The divine 
Plato likewise, in his eighth epistle : " Lycurgus," 
says he, " introduced the power of the senate and 
of the Ephori, a thing very preservative of kingly 
government, which by this means has honorably 
nourished for so many ages, because the law in 
effect was made king. " Now the law cannot be 
king, unless there be some, who, if there should be 
occasion, may put the law in execution against the 
king. A kingly government so bounded and lim- 
ited he himself commends to the Sicilians : " Let 
the people enjoy their liberty under a kingly gov- 
ernment ; let the king himself be accountable : let 
the law take place even against kings themselves, 
if they act contrary to law." Aristotle likewise, 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 279 

in the third book of his Politics : " Of all king- 
doms," says he, " that are governed by laws, that 
of the Lacedemonians seems to be most truly and 
properly so." And he says, all forms of kingly 
governments are according to settled and estab- 
lished laws ; but one, which he calls 7ra/jL/3a<TL\ela, 
or Absolute Monarchy, which he does not mention 
ever to have obtained in any nation. So that 
Aristotle thought such a kingdom as that of the 
Lacedemonians was to be and deserve the name of 
a kingdom more properly than any other ; and con- 
sequently that a king, though subordinate to his 
own people, was nevertheless actually a king, and 
properly so called. Now since so many and so 
great authors assert, that a kingly government 
both in name and thing may very well subsist even 
where the people, though they do not ordinarily 
exercise the supreme power, yet have it actually 
residing in them, and exercise it upon occasion ; 
be not you of so mean a soul as to fear the down- 
fall of grammar, and the confusion of the significa- 
tion of words to that degree, as to betray the liberty 
of mankind and the state, rather than your glossary 

should not hold water 

Let this stand then as a settled maxim of the 
law of nature, never to be shaken by any artifices 
of flatterers, that the senate, or the people, are 
superior to kings, be they good or bad : which is 
but what ypu yourself do in effect confess, when 
you tell us, that the authority of kings was derived 



280 FROM A DEFENCE OF 

from the people. For that power, which they 
transferred to princes, doth yet naturally, or, as I 
may say, virtually reside in themselves notwith- 
standing : for so natural causes, that produce any 
effect by a certain eminency of operation, do always 
retain more of their own virtue and energy than 
they impart ; nor do they, by communicating to 
others, exhaust themselves. You see, the closer 
we keep to nature, the more evidently does the 
people's power appear to be above that of the 
prince. And this is likewise certain, that the 
people do not freely, and of choice, settle the gov- 
ernment in the king absolutely, so as to give him 
a propriety in it, nor by nature can do so : but 
only for the public safety and liberty, which, when 
the king ceases to take care of, then the people in 
effect have given him nothing at all : for nature 
says, the people gave it him to a particular end and 
purpose ; which end, if neither nature nor the 
people can attain, the people's gift becomes no 
more valid than any other void covenant or agree- 
ment. These reasons prove very fully, that the 
people are superior to the king ; and so your 
"greatest and most convincing argument, that a 
king cannot be judged by his people, because he 
has no peer in his kingdom," nor any superior, 

falls to the ground 

Since, therefore, by our law, as appears by that 
old book called " The Mirror," the king has his 
peers, who in Parliament have cognizance of 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 281 

wrongs done by the king to any of his people ; and 
since it is notoriously known that the meanest man 
in the kingdom may even in inferior courts have 
the benefit of the law against the king himself, in 
case of any injury or wrong sustained ; how much 
more consonant to justice, how much more neces- 
sary is it that in case the king oppress all his 
people, there should be such as have authority not 
only to restrain him and keep him within bounds, 
but to judge and punish him ! for that government 
must needs be very ill, and most ridiculously con- 
stituted, in which remedy is provided in case of 
little injuries done by the prince to private persons, 
and no remedy, no redress for greater, no care 
taken for the safety of the whole ; no provision 
made to the contrary, but that the king may, with- 
out any law, ruin all his subjects, when at the 
same time he cannot by law so much as hurt any 
one of them. And since I have shown that it is 
neither good manners, nor expedient, that the 
lords should be the king's judges ; it follows, that 
the power of judicature in that case does wholly, 
and by very good right, belong to the commons, 
who are both peers of the realm and barons, and 
have the power and authority of all the people 
committed to them. For since (as we find it ex- 
pressly in our written law, which I have already 
cited) the commons together with the king made 
a good Parliament without either lords or bishops, 
because before either lords or bishops had a being, 



282 FROM A DEFENCE OF 

kings held Parliaments with their commons only ; 
by the very same reason the commons apart must 
have the sovereign power without the king, and a 
power of judging the king himself; because before 
there ever was a king, they, in the name of the 
whole body of the nation, held councils and Parlia- 
ments, had the power of judicature, made laws, 
and made the kings themselves, not to lord it over 
the people, but to administer their public affairs. 
Whom if the king, instead of so doing, shall en- 
deavor to injure and oppress, our law pronounces 
him from time forward not so much as to retain 
the name of a king, to be no such thing as a king : 
and if he be no king, what need we trouble our- 
selves to find out peers for him ? For being then 
by all good men adjudged to be a tyrant, there are 
none but who are peers good enough for him, and 
proper enough to pronounce sentence of death up- 
on him judicially. These things being so, I think I 
have sufficiently proved what I undertook by many 
authorities, and written laws ; to wit, that since the 
commons have authority by very good right to try 
the king, and since they have actually tried him, 
and put him to death, for the mischief he hath done 
both in church and state, and without all hope of 
amendment, they have done nothing therein but 
what was just and regular, for the interest of the 
state, in discharging of their trust, becoming their 
dignity, and according to the laws of the land. 
And I cannot upon this occasion but congratulate 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 283 

myself with the honor of having had such ances- 
tors, who founded this government with no less 
prudence, and in as much liberty as the most 
worthy of the ancient Romans or Grecians ever 
founded any of theirs : and they must needs, if they 
have any knowledge of our affairs, rejoice over 
their posterity, who, when they were almost reduced 
to slavery, yet with so much wisdom and courage 
vindicated and asserted the state, which they so 
wisely founded upon so much liberty, from the 

unruly government of a king 

But who secluded those ill-affected members? 
" The English army," you say : so that it was not 
an army of foreigners, but of most valiant, and 
faithful, honest natives, whose officers for the most 
part were members of Parliament ; and whom 
those good secluded members would have secluded 
their country, and banished into Ireland ; while, in 
the mean time, the Scots, whose alliance began to 
be doubtful, had very considerable forces in four 
of our northern counties, and kept garrisons in the 
best towns of those parts, and had the king himself 
in custody ; whilst they likewise encouraged the 
tumultuating of those of their own faction, who 
did more than threaten the Parliament, both in 
city and country, and through whose means not 
only a civil, but a war with Scotland too, shortly 
after brake out. If it has been always counted 
praiseworthy in private men to assist the state and 
promote the public good, whether by advice or 



284 . FROM A DEFENCE OF 

action, our army sure was in no fault, who, being 
ordered by the Parliament to come to town, obeyed 
and came, and when they were come, quelled with 
ease the faction and uproar of the king's party, who 
sometimes threatened the House itself. For things 
were brought to that pass, that of necessity either 
we must be run down by them, or they by us. 
They had on their side most of the shopkeepers 
and handicraftsmen of London, and generally those 
of the ministers, that were most factious. On our 
side was the army, whose fidelity, moderation, and 
courage were sufficiently known. It being in our 
power by their means to retain our liberty, our 
state, our common safety, do you think we had not 
been fools to have lost all by our negligence and 
folly ? They who had had places of command in 
the king's army, after their party were subdued, 
had laid down their arms indeed against their wills, 
but continued enemies to us in their hearts : and 
they flocked to town, and were here watching all 
opportunities of renewing the war. With these 
men, though they were the greatest enemies they 
had in the world, and thirsted after their blood, did 
the Presbyterians, because they were not permitted 
to exercise a civil as well as an ecclesiastical juris- 
diction over all others, hold secret correspondence, 
and took measures very unworthy of what they 
had formerly both said and done ; and they came 
to that spleen at last, that they would rather 
enthral themselves to the king again, than admit 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 285 

their own brethren to share in their liberty, which 
they likewise had purchased at the price of their 
own blood; they chose rather to be lorded over 
once more by a tyrant, polluted with the blood of 
so many of his own subjects, and who was enraged, 
and breathed out nothing but revenge against those 
of them that were left, than endure their brethren 
and friends to be upon the square with them. The 
Independents, as they are called, were the only 
men that, from first to last, kept to their point, and 
knew what use to make of their victory. They 
refused (and wisely, in my opinion) to make him 
king again, being then an enemy, who, when he 
was their king, had made himself their enemy: 
nor were they ever the less averse to a peace, but 
they very prudently dreaded a new war, or a per- 
petual slavery under the' name of a peace. To 
load our army with the more reproaches, you begin 
a silly confused narrative of our affairs ; in which, 
though I find many things false, many things 
frivolous, many things laid to our charge for which 
we rather merit ; yet I think, it will be to no pur- 
pose for me to write a true relation in answer to 

your false one 

If any man should question whether you are an 
honest man or a knave, let him read these follow- 
ing lines of yours : "It is time to explain whence 
and at what time this sect [Independents] of ene- 
mies to kingship first began. Why truly these rare 
Puritans began in Queen Elizabeth's time to crawl 



286 FROM A DEFENCE OF 

out of hell, and disturb not only the Church, but 
the state likewise ; for they are no less plagues to 
the latter than to the former." Now your very 
speech bewrays you to be a right Balaam; for 
where you designed to spit out the most bitter 
poison you could, there unwittingly and against 
your will you have pronounced a blessing. For it 
is notoriously known all over England, that if any 
endeavored to follow the example of those Churches, 
whether in France or Germany, which they ac- 
counted best reformed, and to exercise the public 
worship of God in a more pure manner, which our 
bishops had almost universally corrupted with their 
ceremonies and superstitions ; or, if any seemed 
either in point of religion or morality to be better 
than others, such persons were by the favor of 
episcopacy termed Puritans. These are they whose 
principles, you say, are so opposite to kingship. 
Nor are they the only persons. " Most of the re- 
formed religion, that have not sucked in the rest 
of their principles, yet seem to have approved of 
those that strike at kingly government." So that 
while you inveigh bitterly against the Independents, 
and endeavor to separate them from Christ's flock, 
with the same breath you praise them ; and those 
principles which almost everywhere you affirm to 
be peculiar to the Independents, here you confess 
have been approved of by most of the reformed 

religion 

"But," say you, "there were added to those 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 287 

judges, that were made choice of out of the House of 
Commons, some officers of the army, and it never 
was known, that soldiers had any right to try a sub- 
ject for his life." I will silence you in a very few 
words : you may remember, that we are not now 
discoursing of a subject, but of an enemy ; whom 
if a general of an army, after he has taken him 
prisoner, resolves to despatch, would he be thought 
to proceed otherwise than according to custom and 
martial law, if he himself with some of his officers 
should sit upon him, and try and condemn him ? 
An enemy to a state, made a prisoner of war, can- 
not be looked upon to be so much as a member, 
much less a king in that state. This is declared 
by that sacred law of St. Edward, which denies 
that a bad king is a king at all, or ought to be 
called so. Whereas you say, it was " not the 
whole, but a part of the House of Commons, that 
tried and condemned the king," I give you this 
answer : the number of them, who gave their votes 
for putting the king to death, was far greater than 
is necessary, according to the custom of our Parlia- 
ments, to transact the greatest affairs of the king- 
dom, in the absence of the rest ; who, since they 
were absent through their own fault, (for to revolt 
to the common enemy in their hearts is the worst 
sort of absence,) their absence ought not to hinder 
the rest who continued faithful to the cause from 
preserving the state; which when it was in a 
tottering condition, and almost quite reduced to 



288 FROM A DEFENCE OF 

slavery and utter ruin, the whole body of the 
people had at first committed to their fidelity, pru- 
dence, and courage. And they acted their parts 
like men ; they set themselves in opposition to the 
unruly wilfulness, the rage, the secret designs of 
an inveterate and exasperated king ; they preferred 
the common liberty and safety before their own ; 
they outdid all former Parliaments, they outdid 
all their ancestors, in conduct, magnanimity, and 
steadiness to their cause. Yet these very men did 
a great part of the people ungratefully desert in 
the midst of their undertaking, though they had 
promised them all fidelity, all the help and assist- 
ance they could afford them. These were for 
slavery and peace, with sloth and luxury, upon 
any terms : others demanded their liberty, nor 
would accept of a peace that was not sure and 
honorable. What should the Parliament do 'in 
this case ? Ought they to have defended this part 
of the people, that was sound, and continued faith- 
ful to them and their country, or to have sided 
with those that deserted both ? I know what you 
will say they ought to have done. You are not 
Eurylochus, but Elpenor, a miserable enchanted 
beast, a filthy swine, accustomed to a sordid slavery, 
even under a woman ; so that you have not the 
least relish of true magnanimity, nor consequently 
of liberty, which is the effect of it: you would 
have all other men slaves, because you find in 
yourself no generous, ingenuous inclinations ; you 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 289 

say nothing, you breathe nothing, but what is 

mean and servile 

Here you lament his being condemned as a 
tyrant, a traitor, and a murderer. That he had 
no wrong done him, shall now be made appear. 
But let us define a tyrant, not according to vulgar 
conceits, but the judgment of Aristotle, and of all 
learned men. He is a tyrant who regards his own 
welfare and profit only, and not that of the people. 
So Aristotle defines one in the tenth book of his 
Ethics, and elsewhere ; and so do very many 
others. Whether Charles regarded his own or the 
people's good, these few things of many that I shall 
but touch upon will evince. When his rents and 
other public revenues of the crown would not 
defray the expenses of the court, he laid most 
heavy taxes upon the people ; and when they were 
squandered away, he invented new ones ; not for 
the benefit, honor, or defence of the state, but that 
he might hoard up, or lavish out in one house, the 
riches and wealth, not of one, but of three nations. 
When at this rate he broke loose, and acted with- 
out any color of law to warrant his proceedings, 
knowing that the Parliament was the only thing 
that could give him check, he endeavored either 
wholly to lay aside the very calling of Parliaments, 
or calling them just as often, and no oftener, than 
to serve his own turn, to make them entirely at 
his devotion. Which bridle when he had cast off 
himself, he put another bridle upon the people : he 

13 8 



290 FROM A DEFENCE OF 

put garrisons of German horse and Irish foot in 
many towns and cities, and that in time of peace. 
Do you think he does not begin to look like a 
tyrant ? In which very thing, as in many other 
particulars, which you have formerly given me 
occasion to instance, though you scorn to have 
Charles compared with so cruel a tyrant as Nero, 
he resembled him extremely much. For Nero like- 
wise often threatened to take away the senate. 
Besides, he bore extreme hard upon the con- 
sciences of good men, and compelled them to the 
use of ceremonies and superstitious worship, bor- 
rowed from Popery, and by him reintroduced into 
the Church. They that would not conform, were 
imprisoned or banished. He made war upon the 
Scots twice for no other cause than that. By all 
these actions he has surely deserved the name of a 
tyrant once over at least. Now I will tell you 
why the word traitor was put into his indictment: 
when he assured his Parliament by promises, by 
proclamations, by imprecations, that he had no 
design against the state, at that very time did he 
list Papists in Ireland, he sent a private embassy 
to the king of Denmark to beg assistance from him 
of arms, horses, and men, expressly against the 
Parliament ; and was endeavoring to raise an army 
first in England, and then in Scotland. To the 
English he promised the plunder of the city of 
London ; to the Scots, that the four northern coun- 
ties should be added to Scotland, if they would but 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 291 

help him to get rid of the Parliament, by what 
means soever. These projects not succeeding, he 
sent over one Dillon, a traitor, into Ireland, with 
private instructions to the natives, to fall suddenly 
upon all the English that inhabited there. These 
are the most remarkable instances of his treasons, 
not taken up upon hearsay and idle reports, but 
discovered by letters under his own hand and seal. 
And finally I suppose no man will deny that he 
was a murderer, by whose order the Irish took 
arms, and put to death with most exquisite tor- 
ments above a hundred thousand English, who 
lived peaceably by them, and without any appre- 
hension of danger ; and who raised so great a civil 
war in the other two kingdoms. Add to all this, 
that at the treaty in the Isle of Wight the king 
openly took upon himself the guilt of the war, and 
cleared the Parliament in the confession he made 
there, which is publicly known. Thus you have 
in short why King Charles was adjudged a tyrant, 

a traitor, and a murderer 

It would never have entered into the thoughts 
of this rascally foreign grammarian, to write a dis- 
course of the rights of the crown of England, 
unless both Charles Stuart, now in banishment, 
and tainted with his father's principles, and those 
profligate tutors that he has along with him, had 
industriously suggested to him what they would 
have writ. They dictated to him, " that the 
whole Parliament were liable to be proceeded 



292 FROM A DEFENCE OF 

against as traitors, because they declared, without 
the king's assent, all them to be traitors who had 
taken up arms against the Parliament of England ; 
and that Parliaments were but the king's vassals ; 
that the oath which our kings take at their corona- 
tion is but a ceremony " : and why not that a vassal 
too ? So that no reverence of laws, no sacredness 
of an oath, will be sufficient to protect your lives 
and fortunes, either from the exorbitance of a 
furious, or the revenge of an exasperated prince, 
who has been so instructed from his cradle, as to 
think laws, religion, nay, and oaths themselves, 
ought to be subject to his will and pleasure. How 
much better is it, and more becoming yourselves, 
if you desire riches, liberty, peace, and empire, to 
obtain them assuredly by your own virtue, indus- 
try, prudence, and valor, than to long after and 
hope for them in vain under the rule of a king? 
They who are of opinion that these things cannot 
be compassed but under a king, and a lord, it can- 
not well be expressed how mean, how base, I do 
not say, how unworthy, thoughts they have of 
themselves ; for in effect, what do they other than 
confess, that they themselves are lazy, weak, sense- 
less, silly persons, and framed for slavery both in 
body and mind ? And indeed all manner of slavery 
is scandalous and disgraceful to a freeborn ingenu- 
ous person ; but for you, after you have recovered 
your lost liberty, by God's assistance and your own 
arms; after the performance of so many valiant 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 293 

exploits, and the making so remarkable an example 
of a most potent king, to desire to return again 
into a condition of bondage and slavery, will not 
only be scandalous and disgraceful, but an impious 
and wicked thing ; and equal to that of the Israel- 
ites, who for desiring to return to the Egyptian 
slavery were so severely punished for that sordid, 
slavish temper of mind, and so many of them 
destroyed by that God who had been their de- 
liverer 

And now I think, through God's assistance, I 
have finished the work I undertook, to wit, the 
defence of the noble actions of my countrymen at 
home and abroad, against the raging and envious 
madness of this distracted sophister ; and the assert- 
ing of the common rights of the people against the 
unjust domination of kings, not out of any hatred 
to kings, but tyrants: nor have I purposely left 
unanswered any one argument alleged by my ad- 
versary, nor any one example or authority quoted 
by him, that seemed to have any force in it, or the 
least color of an argument. Perhaps I have been 
guilty rather of the other extreme, of replying to 
some of his fooleries and trifles, as if they were 
solid arguments, and thereby may seem to have 
attributed more to them than they deserved. One 
thing yet remains to be done, which perhaps is of 
the greatest concern of all, and that is, that you, 
my countrymen, refute this adversary of yours 
yourselves, which I do not see any other means of 



294 FROM A DEFENCE OF 

your affecting, than by a constant endeavor to out- 
do all men's bad words by your own good deeds. 
When you labored under more sorts of oppression 
than one, you betook yourselves to God for refuge, 
and he was graciously pleased to hear your most 
earnest prayer and desires. He has gloriously 
delivered you, the first of nations, from the two 
greatest mischiefs of this life, and most pernicious 
to virtue, tyranny and superstition ; he has endued 
you with greatness of mind to be the first of man- 
kind, who after having conquered their own king, 
and having had him delivered into their hands, 
have not scrupled to condemn him judicially, and, 
pursuant to that sentence of condemnation, to put 
him to death. After the performing so glorious an 
action as this, you ought to do nothing that is mean 
and little, not so much as to think of, much less to 
do, anything but what is great and sublime. Which 
to attain to, this is your only way : as you have 
subdued your enemies in the field, so to make 
appear, that unarmed, and in the highest outward 
peace and tranquillity, you of all mankind are best 
able to subdue ambition, avarice, the love of riches, 
and can best avoid the corruptions that prosperity 
is apt to introduce, (which generally subdue and 
triumph over other nations,) to show as great 
justice, temperance, and moderation in the main- 
taining your liberty, as you have shown courage 
in freeing yourselves from slavery. These are the 
only arguments by which you will be able to 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 295 

evince that you are not such persons as this fellow 
represents you, — Traitors, Robbers, Murderers, 
Parricides, Madmen ; that you did not put your 
king to death out of any ambitious design, or a 
desire of invading the rights of others ; not out of 
any seditious principles or sinister ends ; that it 
was not an act of fury or madness ; but that it was 
wholly out of love to your liberty, your religion, 
to justice, virtue, and your country, that you pun- 
ished a tyrant. But if it should fall out other- 
wise, (which God forbid,) if as you have been 
valiant in war, you should grow debauched in 
peace, you that have had such visible demonstra- 
tions of the goodness of God to yourselves, and 
his wrath against your enemies ; and that you 
should not have learned by so eminent, so remark- 
able an example before your 3yes, to fear God, 
and work righteousness ; for m/ part, I shall easily 
grant and confess (for I cannot deny it) whatever 
ill men may speak or think of you, to be very 
true. And you will find in a little time, that 
God's displeasure against you will be greater than 
it has been against your adversaries, greater than 
his grace and favor has been to yourselves, which 
you have had larger experience of than any other 
nation under heaven. 





FROM 

THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE 
PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 




GRATEFUL recollection of the divine 
goodness is the first of human obliga- 
tions ; and extraordinary favors demand 
more solemn and devout acknowledg- 
ments: with such acknowledgments I feel it my 
duty to begin this work. First, because I was 
born at a time when the virtue of my fellow-citi- 
zens, far exceeding that of their progenitors in 
greatness of soul and vigor of enterprise, having 
invoked Heaven to witness the justice of their 
cause, and been clearly governed by its directions, 
has succeeded in delivering the commonwealth 
from the most grievous tyranny, and religion from 
the most ignominious degradation. And next, be- 
cause when there suddenly arose many who, as is 
usual with the vulgar, basely calumniated the most 
illustrious achievements, and when one, eminent 
above the rest, inflated with literary pride, and the 
zealous applauses of his partisans, had in a scanda- 
lous publication, which was particularly levelled 



FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE. 297 

against me, nefariously undertaken to plead the 
cause of despotism, I, who was neither deemed un- 
equal to so renowned an adversary, nor to so great 
a subject, was particularly selected by the deliver- 
ers of our country, and by the general suffrage of 
the public, openly to vindicate the rights of the 
English nation, and consequently of liberty itself. 
Lastly, because in a matter of so much moment, 
and which excited such ardent expectations, I did 
not disappoint the hopes nor the opinions of my 
fellow-citizens ; while men of learning and emi- 
nence abroad honored me with unmingled appro- 
bation ; while I obtained such a victory over my 
opponent, that, notwithstanding his unparalleled 
assurance, he was obliged to quit the field with 
his courage broken and his reputation lost ; and for 
the three years which he lived afterwards, much 
as he menaced and furiously as he raved, he gave 
me no further trouble, except that he procured the 
paltry aid of some despicable hirelings, and sub- 
orned some of his silly and extravagant admirers, 
to support him under the weight of the unexpected 
and recent disgrace which he had experienced. 
This will immediately appear. Such are the sig- 
nal favors which I ascribe to the divine beneficence, 
and which I thought it right devoutly to commemo- 
rate, not only that I might discharge a debt of 
gratitude, but particularly because they seem aus- 
picious to the success of my present undertaking. 
For who is there who does not identify the honor 

13* 



298 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

of his country with his own ? And what can con- 
duce more to the beauty or glory of one's country, 
than the recovery, not only of its civil but its re- 
ligious liberty ? And what nation or state ever 
obtained both, by more successful or more valorous 
exertion? For fortitude is seen resplendent, not 
only in the field of battle and amid the clash of 
arms, but displays its energy under every difficulty 
and against every assailant. Those Greeks and 
Romans, who are the objects of our admiration, em- 
ployed hardly any other virtue in the extirpation 
of tyrants, than that love of liberty which made 
them prompt in seizing the sword, and gave them 
strength to use it. With facility they accomplished 
the undertaking, amid the general shout of praise 
and joy ; nor did they engage in the attempt so 
much as an enterprise of perilous and doubtful is- 
sue, as in a contest the most glorious in which vir- 
tue could be signalized; which infallibly led to 
present recompense ; which bound their brows 
with wreaths of laurel, and consigned their mem- 
ories to immortal fame. For as yet, tyrants were 
not beheld with a superstitious reverence ; as yet 
they were not regarded with tenderness and com- 
placency, as the vicegerents or deputies of Christ, 
as they have suddenly professed to be ; as yet the 
vulgar, stupefied by the subtle casuistry of the 
priest, had not degenerated into a state of barba- 
rism, more gross than that which disgraces the most 
senseless natives of Hindostan. For these make mis- 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 299 

chievous demons, whose malice they cannot resist, 
the objects of their religious adoration : while those 
elevate impotent tyrants, in order to shield them 
from destruction, into the rank of gods ; and, to 
their own cost, consecrate the pests of the human 
race. But against this dark array of long-re- 
ceived opinions, superstitions, obloquy, and fears, 
which some dread even more than the enemy him- 
self, the English had to contend; and all this, 
under the light of better information, and favored 
by an impulse from above, they overcame with 
such singular enthusiasm and bravery, that, great 
as were the numbers eno-ao-ed in the contest, the 
grandeur of conception, and loftiness of spirit which 
were universally displayed, merited for each indi- 
vidual more than a mediocrity of fame ; and Brit- 
ain, which was formerly styled the hot-bed of tyr- 
anny, will hereafter deserve to be celebrated, for 
endless ages, as a soil most genial to the growth of 
liberty. During the mighty struggle, no anarchy, 
no licentiousness was seen ; no illusions of glory, 
no extravagant emulation of the ancients inflamed 
them with a thirst for ideal liberty ; but the recti- 
tude of their lives, and the sobriety of their habits, 
taught them the only true and safe road to real 
liberty ; and they took up arms only to defend the 
sanctity of the laws and the rights of conscience. 
Relying on the divine assistance, they used every 
honorable exertion to break the yoke of slavery ; 
of the praise of which, though I claim no share to 



300 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

myself, yet I can easily repel any charge which 
may be adduced against me, either of want of 
courage, or want of zeal. For though I did not 
participate in the toils or dangers of the war, yet I 
was at the same time engaged in a service not less 
hazardous to myself and more beneficial to my fel- 
low-citizens ; nor, in the adverse turns of our af- 
fairs, did I ever betray any symptoms of pusilla- 
nimity and dejection ; or show myself more afraid 
than became me of malice or of death. For since 
from my youth I was devoted to the pursuits of 
literature, and my mind had always been stronger 
than my body, I did not court the labors of a 
camp, in which any common person would have 
been of more service than myself, but resorted to 
that employment in which my exertions were 
likely to be of most avail. Thus, with the better 
part of my frame I contributed as much as possi- 
ble to the good of my country, and to the success 
of the glorious cause in which we were engaged ; 
and I thought that if God willed the success of such 
glorious achievements, it was equally agreeable to 
his will that there should be others by whom those 
achievements should be recorded with dignity and 
elegance ; and that the truth, which had been de- 
fended by arms, should also be defended by reason ; 
which is the best and only legitimate means of de- 
fending it. Hence, while I applaud those who 
were victorious in the field, I will not complain of 
the province which was assigned me ; but rather 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 301 

congratulate myself upon it, and thank the Author 
of all good for having placed me in a station, which 
may be an object of envy to others rather than of 
regret to myself. I am far from wishing to make 
any vain or arrogant comparisons, or to speak os- 
tentatiously of myself; but, in a cause so great 
and glorious, and particularly on an occasion when 
I am called by the general suffrage to defend the 
very defenders of that cause, I can hardly refrain 
from assuming a more lofty and swelling tone than 
the simplicity of an exordium may seem to justify : 
and much as I may be surpassed in the powers of 
eloquence and copiousness of diction, by the illus- 
trious orators of antiquity, yet the subject of which 
I treat was never surpassed in any age, in dignit}^ 
or in interest. It has excited such general and 
such ardent expectation, that I imagine myself not 
in the forum or on the rostra, surrounded only by 
the people of Athens or of Rome, but about to ad- 
dress in this, as I did in my former Defence, the 
whole collective body of people, cities, states, and 
councils of the wise and eminent, through the 
wide expanse of anxious and listening Europe. 
I seem to survey, as from a towering height, the 
far-extended tracts of sea and land, and innumera- 
ble crowds of spectators, betraying in their looks the 
liveliest interest, and sensations the most congenial 
with my own. Here I behold the stout and man- 
ly prowess of the Germans disdaining servitude ; 
there the generous and lively impetuosity of the 



302 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

French ; on this side, the calm and stately valor of 
the Spaniard ; on that the composed and wary 
magnanimity of the Italian. Of all the lovers of 
liberty and virtue, the magnanimous and the wise, 
in whatever quarter they may be found, some se- 
cretly favor, others openly approve ; some greet 
me with congratulations and applause ; others, who 
had long been proof against conviction, at last 
yield themselves captive to the force of truth. 
Surrounded by congregated multitudes, I now im- 
agine that, from the columns of Hercules to the In- 
dian Ocean, I behold the nations of the earth re- 
covering that liberty which they so long had lost ; 
and that the people of this island are transporting 
to other countries a plant of more beneficial quali- 
ties, and more noble growth, than that which Trip- 
tolemus is reported to have carried from region to 
region ; that they are disseminating the blessings 
of civilization and freedom among cities, kingdoms, 

and nations 

The prerogative which I deny to kings, I would 
persist in denying in any legitimate monarchy; 
for no sovereign could injure me without first con- 
demning himself by a confession of his despotism. 
If I inveigh against tyrants, what is this to kings ? 
whom I am far from associating with tyrants. As 
much as an honest man differs from a rogue, so 
much I contend that a king differs from a tyrant. 
Whence it is clear, that a tyrant is so far from 
being a king, that he is always in direct opposition 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 303 

to a king. And he who peruses the records of 
history, will find that more kings have been sub- 
verted by tyrants than by their subjects. He, 
therefore, who would authorize the destruction of 
tyrants, does not authorize the destruction of kings, 
but of the most inveterate enemies to kings. But 
that right, which you concede to kings, the right 
of doing what they please, is not justice, but in- 
justice, ruin, and despair. By that envenomed 
present you yourselves destroy those whom you 
extol as if they were above the reach of danger 
and oppression ; and you quite obliterate the differ- 
ence between a king and a tyrant, if you invest 
both with the same arbitrary power. For, if a 
king does not exercise that power, (and no king 
will exercise it as long as he is not a tyrant,) the 
power must be ascribed, not to the king, but to the 
individual. For, what can be imagined more ab- 
surd than that regal prerogative, which, if any one 
uses, as often as he wishes to act the king, so often 
he ceases to be an honest man ; and as often as he 
chooses to be an honest man, so often he must 
evince that he is not a king ? Can any more bitter 
reproach be cast upon kings ? He who maintains 
this prerogative must himself be a monster of in- 
justice and iniquity ; for how can there be a worse 
person than him, who must himself first verify the 
exaggerated picture of atrocity which he delineates? 
But if every good man, as an ancient sect of phi- 
losophers magnificently taught, is a king, it follows 



304 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

that every bad one is, according to his capacity, a 
tyrant ; nor does the name of tyrant signify any- 
thing soaring or illustrious, but the meanest reptile 
on the earth ; for in proportion as he is great, he is 
contemptible and abject. Others are vicious only 
for themselves ; but tyrants are vicious, not only 
for themselves, but are even involuntarily obliged 
to participate in the crimes of their importunate 
menials and favorites, and to intrust certain por- 
tions of their despotism to the vilest of their 
dependants. Tyrants are thus the most abject of 
slaves, for they are the servants of those who are 

themselves in servitude 

Let us now come to the charges which were 
brought against myself. Is there anything repre- 
hensible in my manners or my conduct ? Surely 
nothing. What no one, not totally divested of 
all generous sensibility, would have done, he re- 
proaches me with want of beauty and loss of 
sight,— 

" A monster huge and hideous, void of sight." 

I certainly never supposed that I should have 
been obliged to enter into a competition for beauty 
with the Cyclops ; but he immediately corrects 
himself, and says, " though not indeed huge, for 
there cannot be a more spare, shrivelled, and 
bloodless form." It is of no moment to say any- 
thing of personal appearance, yet lest (as the 
Spanish vulgar, implicitly confiding in the relations 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 305 

of their priests, believe of heretics) any one, from 
the representations of my enemies, should be led 
to imagine that I have either the head of a dog, or 
the horn of a rhinoceros, I will say something on 
the subject, that I may have an opportunity of 
paying my grateful acknowledgments to the Deity, 
and of refuting the most shameless lies. I do not 
believe that I was ever once noted for deformity, 
by any one who ever saw me ; but the praise of 
beauty I am not anxious to obtain. My stature 
certainly is not tall ; but it rather approaches the 
middle than the diminutive. Yet what if it were 
diminutive, when so many men, illustrious both in 
peace and war, have been the same ? And how 
can that be called diminutive, which is great 
enough for every virtuous achievement? Nor, 
though very thin, was I ever deficient in courage 
or in strength • and I was wont constantlv to exer- 
cise myself in the use of the broadsword, as long 
as it comported with my habit and my years. 
Armed with this weapon, as I usually was, I 
should have thought myself quite a match for any 
one, though much stronger than myself; and I felt 
perfectly secure against the assault of any open 
enemv. At this moment I have the same courage, 
the same strength, though not the same eyes ; yet 
so little do they betray any external appearance of 
injury, that they are as unclouded and bright as 
the eyes of those who most distinctly see. In this 
instance alone I am a dissembler against my will. 



306 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

My face, which is said to indicate a total privation 
of blood, is of a complexion entirely opposite to 
the pale and the cadaverous ; so that, though I am 
more than forty years old, there is scarcely any one 
to whom I do not appear ten years younger than I 
am ; and the smoothness of my skin is not, in the 
least, affected by the wrinkles of age. If there be 
one particle of falsehood in this relation, I should 
deservedly incur the ridicule of many thousands 
of my countrymen, and even many foreigners, to 
whom I am personally known. But if he, in a 
matter so foreign to his purpose, shall be found to 
have asserted so many shameless and gratuitous 
falsehoods, you may the more readily estimate the 
quantity of his veracity on other topics. Thus 
much necessity compelled me to assert concerning 
my personal appearance. Respecting yours, though 
I have been informed that it is most insignificant 
and contemptible, a perfect mirror of the worth- 
lessness of your character and the malevolence of 
your heart, I say nothing, and no one will be 
anxious that anything should be said. I wish that 
I could with equal facility refute what this barba- 
rous opponent has said of my blindness ; but I can- 
not do it ; and I must submit to the affliction. It 
is not so wretched to be blind, as it is not to be 
capable of enduring blindness. But why should I 
not endure a misfortune, which it behoves every 
one to be prepared to endure if it should happen ; 
which may, in the common course of things, hap- 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 307 

pen to any man ; and which has been known to 
happen to the most distinguished and virtuous per- 
sons in history. Shall I mention those wise and 
ancient bards, whose misfortunes the gods are said 
to have compensated by superior endowments, and 
whom men so much revered, that they chose 
rather to impute their want of sight to the injustice 
of Heaven than to their own want of innocence 
or virtue ? What is reported of the Augur Tire- 
sias is well known ; of whom Apollonius sung thus 
in his Argonauts : — 

" To men he dared the will divine disclose, 
Nor feared what Jove might in his wrath impose. 
The gods assigned him age, without decay, 
But snatched the blessing of his sight away." 

But God himself is truth ; ,in propagating which, 
as men display a greater integrity and zeal, they 
approach nearer to the similitude of God, and pos- 
sess a greater portion of his love. We cannot 
suppose the Deity envious of truth, or unwilling 
that it should be freely communicated to mankind. 
The loss of sight, therefore, which this inspired 
sage, who was so eager in promoting knowledge 
among men, sustained, cannot be considered as a 
judicial punishment. Or shall I mention those 
worthies, who were as distinguished for wisdom in 
the cabinet as for valor in the field ? And first, 
Timoleon of Corinth, who delivered his city and 
all Sicily from the yoke of slavery ; than whom 
there never lived in any age, a more virtuous man, 



308 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

or a more incorrupt statesman : next Appins Clau- 
dius, whose discreet counsels in the Senate, though 
they could not restore sight to his own eyes, saved 
Italy from the formidable inroads of Pyrrhus : 
then CaBcilius Metellus the high-priest, who lost his 
sight, while he saved, not only the city, but the 
palladium, the protection of the city, and the most 
sacred relics, from the destruction of the flames. 
On other occasions Providence has indeed given 
conspicuous proofs of its regard for such singular 
exertions of patriotism and virtue ; what, there- 
fore, happened to so great and so good a man, 
I can hardly place in the catalogue of misfor- 
tunes. Why should I mention others of later 
times, as Dandolo of Venice, the incomparable 
Doge; of Boemar Zisca, the bravest of generals, 
and the champion of the cross ; or Jerome Zan- 
chius, and some other theologians of the highest 
reputation? For it is evident that the patriarch 
Isaac, than whom no man ever enjoyed more of 
the divine regard, lived blind for many years ; and 
perhaps also his son Jacob, who was equally an 
object of the divine benevolence. And in short, 
did not our Saviour himself clearly declare that that 
poor man whom he restored to sight had not been 
born blind either on account of his own sins or 
those of his progenitors? And with respect to 
myself, though I have accurately examined my 
conduct, and scrutinized my soul, I call thee, 
O God, the searcher of hearts, to witness, that I 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 309 

am not conscious, either in the more early or in 
the later periods of my life, of having committed 
any enormity, which might deservedly have marked 
me out as a fit object for such a calamitous visita- 
tion. But since my enemies boast that this afflic- 
tion is only a retribution for the transgressions of 
my pen, I again invoke the Almighty to witness, 
that I never, at any time, wrote anything which I 
did not think agreeable to truth, to justice, and to 
piety. This was my persuasion then, and I feel 
the same persuasion now. Nor was I ever prompt- 
ed to such exertions by the influence of ambition, 
by the lust of lucre or of praise ; it was only by 
the conviction of duty and the feeling of patriot- 
ism, a disinterested passion for the extension of 
civil and religious liberty. Thus, therefore, when 
I was publicly solicited to write a reply to the 
Defence of the royal cause, when I had to con- 
tend with the pressure of sickness, and with the 
apprehension of soon losing the sight of my remain- 
ing eye, and when my medical attendants clearly 
announced, that if I did engage in the work, it 
would be irreparably lost, their premonitions caused 
no hesitation and inspired no dismay. I would not 
have listened to the voice even of Esculapius him- 
self from the shrine of Epidauris, in preference to 
the suggestions of the heavenly monitor within my 
breast; my resolution was unshaken, though the 
alternative was either the loss of my sight, or the 
desertion of my duty : and I called to mind those 



310 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

two destinies, which the oracle of Delphi an- 
nounced to the son of Thetis : — 

" Two fates may lead me to the realms of night ; 
If staying here, around Troy's wall I fight, 
To my dear home no more must I return ; 
But lasting glory will adorn my urn. 
But, if I withdraw from the martial strife, 
Short is my fame, but long will be my life." — 11. ix. 

I considered that many had purchased a less good 
by a greater evil, the meed of glory by the loss of 
life ; but that I might procure great good by little 
suffering; that though I am blind, I might still 
discharge the most honorable duties, the perform- 
ance of which, as it is something more durable than 
glory, ought to be an object of superior admiration 
and esteem; I resolved, therefore, to make the 
short interval of sight, which was left me to enjoy, 
as beneficial as possible to the public interest. 
Thus it is clear by what motives I was governed 
in the measures which I took, and the losses which 
I sustained. Let then the calumniators of the 
divine goodness cease to revile, or to make me the 
object of their superstitious imaginations. Let 
them consider, that my situation, such as it is, is 
neither an object of my shame or my regret, that 
my resolutions are too firm to be shaken, that I am 
not depressed by any sense of the divine displeas- 
ure ; that, on the other hand, in the most moment- 
ous periods, I have had full experience of the 
divine favor and protection ; and that, in the solace 
and the strength which have been infused into me 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 311 

from above, I have been enabled to do the will of 
God ; that I may oftener think on what he has be- 
stowed, than on what he has withheld ; that, in short, 
I am unwilling to exchange my consciousness of 
rectitude with that of any other person ; and that 
I feel the recollection of a treasured store of tran- 
quillity and delight. But, if the choice were neces- 
sary, I would, sir, prefer my blindness to yours ; 
yours is a cloud spread over the mind, which dark- 
ens both the light of reason and of conscience ; 
mine keeps from my view only the colored sur- 
faces of things, while it leaves me at liberty to 
contemplate the beauty and stability of virtue and 
of truth. How many things are there besides 
which I would not willingly see ; how many which 
I must see against my will ; and how few which I 
feel any anxiety to see ! There is, as the Apostle 
has remarked, a way to strength through weakness. 
Let me then be the most feeble creature alive, as 
long as that feebleness serves to invigorate the 
energies of my rational and immortal spirit; as 
long as in that obscurity in which I am enveloped 
the light of the divine presence more clearly shines, 
then, in proportion as I am weak, I shall be invin- 
cibly strong ; and in proportion as I am blind, I 
shall more clearly see. O that I may thus be 
perfected by feebleness, and irradiated by obscurity ! 
And, indeed, in my blindness, I enjoy in no incon- 
siderable degree the favor of the Deity, who re- 
gards me with more tenderness and compassion in 



312 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

proportion as I am able to behold nothing but him- 
self. Alas ! for him who insults me, who maligns 
and merits public execration ! For the divine law 
not only shields me from injury, but almost renders 
me too sacred to attack ; not indeed so much from 
the privation of my sight, as from the overshadow- 
ing of those heavenly wings which seem to have 
occasioned this obscurity ; and which, when occa- 
sioned, he is wont to illuminate with an interior 
light, more precious and more pure. To this I 
ascribe the more tender assiduities of my friends, 
their soothing attentions, their kind visits, their 
reverential observances ; among whom there are 
some with whom I may interchange the Pyladean 
and Thesean dialogue of inseparable friends : — 

" Orest. Proceed, and be rudder of my feet, by showing me the 
most endearing love." — Etjeip. in Orest. 

And in another place, 

" Lend your hand to your devoted friend, 
Throw your arm round my neck, and I will conduct you on 
the way." 

This extraordinary kindness, which I experi- 
ence, cannot be any fortuitous combination ; and 
friends, such as mine, do not suppose that all the 
virtues of a man are contained in his eyes. Nor 
do the persons of principal distinction in the com- 
monwealth suffer me to be bereaved of comfort, 
when they see me bereaved of sight, amid the ex- 
ertions which I made, the zeal which I showed, 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 313 

and the dangers which I run for the liberty which 
I love. But, soberly reflecting on the casualties 
of human life, they show me favor and indulgence, 
as to a soldier who has served his time, and kindly 
concede to me an exemption from care and toil. 
They do not strip me of the badges of honor 
which I have once worn ; they do not deprive me 
of the places of public trust to which I have been 
appointed ; they do not abridge my salary or emol- 
uments ; which, though I may not do so much to 
deserve as I did formerly, they are too considerate 
and too kind to take away ; and, in short, they 
honor me as much as the Athenians did those 
whom they determined to support at the public ex- 
pense in the Prytaneum. Thus, while both God 
and man unite in solacing me under the weight of 
my affliction, let no one lament my loss of sight 
in so honorable a cause 

He alone is worthy of the appellation [great] 
who does great things, or teaches how they may be 
done, or describes them with a suitable majesty 
when they have been done ; but those only are 
great things, which tend to render life more happy, 
which increase the innocent enjoyments and com- 
forts of existence, or which pave the way to 
a state of future bliss more permanent and more 
pure 

My work soon excited general approbation and 
delight ; the author was lost sight of in the blaze 
of truth ; and Salmasius, who had so lately been 
u 



314 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

towering on the pinnacle of distinction, stripped 
of the mask which he had worn, soon dwindled 
into insignificance and contempt ; from which, as 
long as he lived, he could never afterwards emerge, 
or recover his former consequence. But your 
penetrating mind, O serene queen of Sweden, 
soon detected his imposture ; and, with a magna- 
nimity almost above human, you taught sovereigns 
and the world to prefer truth to the interested 
clamors of faction. For though the splendor of 
his erudition, and the celebrity which he had ac- 
quired in the defence of the royal cause, had in- 
duced you to honor him with many marks of dis- 
tinction, yet, when my answer appeared, which 
you perused with singular equanimity, you per- 
ceived that he had been convicted of the most pal- 
pable effrontery and misrepresentation ; that he 
had betrayed the utmost indiscretion and intem- 
perance, that he had uttered many falsehoods, 
many inconsistencies and contradictions. On this 
account, as it is said, you had him called into 
your presence ; but when he was unable to vindi- 
cate himself, you were so visibly offended, that 
from that time you neither showed him the same 
attentions, nor held his talents nor his learning in 
the same esteem ; and, what was entirely unex- 
pected, you manifested a disposition to favor his 
adversary* You denied that what I had written 
against tyrants could have any reference to you ; 
whence, in your own breast you enjoyed the 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 315 

sweets, and among others the fame, of a good con- 
science. For, since the whole tenor of your con- 
duct sufficiently proves, that you are no tyrant, 
this unreserved expression of your sentiments 
makes it still more clear, that you are not even 
conscious to yourself of being one. How happy 
am I beyond my utmost expectations ! (for to the 
praise of eloquence, except as far as eloquence 
consists in the force of truth, I lay no claim,) that, 
when the critical exigencies of my country de- 
manded that I should undertake the arduous and 
invidious task of impugning the rights of kings, I 
should meet with so illustrious, so truly a royal 
evidence to my integrity, and to this truth, that I 
had not written a word against kings, but only 
against tyrants, the spots and the pests of royalty ? 
But you, O Augusta, possessed not only so much 
magnanimity, but were so irradiated by the glori- 
ous beams of wisdom and of virtue, that you not 
only read with patience, with incredible impartiali- 
ty, with a serene complacency of countenance, 
what might seem to be levelled against your rights 
and dignity ; but expressed such an opinion of the 
defender of those rights, as may well be consid- 
ered an adjudication of the palm of victory to his 
opponent. You, O queen ! will forever be the ob- 
ject of my homage, my veneration, and my love ; 
for it was your greatness of soul, so honorable to 
yourself and so auspicious to me, which served to 
efface the unfavorable impression against me at 



316 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 



* 



other courts, and to rescue me from the evil sur- 
mises of other sovereigns. What a high and fa- 
vorable opinion must foreigners conceive, and 
your own subjects forever entertain, of your im- 
partiality and justice, when, in a matter which so 
nearly interested the fate of sovereigns and the 
rights of your crown, they saw you sit down to 
the discussion with as much equanimity and com- 
posure, as you would to determine a dispute be- 
tween two private individuals. It was not in vain 
that you made such large collections of books, and 
so many monuments of learning ; not, indeed, that 
they could contribute much to your instruction, 
but because they so will teach your subjects to 
appreciate the merits of your reign, and the rare 
excellence of your virtue and your wisdom. For 
the Divinity himself seems to have inspired you 
with a love of wisdom, and a thirst for improvement, 
beyond what any books ever could have produced. 
It excites our astonishment to see a force of intel- 
lect so truly divine, a particle of celestial flame so 
resplendently pure, in a region so remote ; of 
which an atmosphere, so darkened with clouds, 
and so chilled with frosts, could not extinguish the 
light, nor repress the operations. The rocky and 
barren soil, which is often as unfavorable to the 
growth of genius as of plants, has not impeded 
the maturation of your faculties ; and that coun- 
try so rich in metallic ore, which appears like a 
cruel step-mother to others, seems to have been a 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 317 

fostering parent to you ; and after the most stren- 
uous attempts to have at last produced a progeny 
of pure gold. I would invoke you, Christina ! as 
the only child of the renowned and victorious Adol- 
phus, if your merit did not as much eclipse his, as 
wisdom excels strength, and the arts of peace the 
havoc of war. Henceforth, the queen of the 
South will not be alone renowned in history ; for 
there is a queen of the north, who would not only 
be worthy to appear in the court of the wise King 
of the Jews, or any king of equal wisdom ; but to 
whose court others may from all parts repair, to 
behold so fair a heroine, so bright a pattern of 
all the royal virtues ; and to the crown of whose 
praise this may well be added, that, neither in her 
conduct nor her appearance, is there any of the 
forbidding reserve, or the ostentatious parade, of 
royalty. She herself seems the least conscious of 
her own attributes of sovereignty ; and her thoughts 
are always fixed on something greater and more 
sublime than the glitter of a crown. In this re- 
spect, her example may well make innumerable 
kings hide their diminished heads. She may, if 
such is the fatality of the Swedish nation, abdicate 
the sovereignty, but she can never lay aside the 
queen ; for her reign has proved that she is fit to 

govern, not only Sweden, but the world 

I must therefore crave the indulgence of the 
reader if I have said already, or shall say hereafter, 
more of myself than I wish to say ; that, if I can- 



318 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

not prevent the blindness of my eyes, the oblivion 
or the defamation of my name, I may at least rescue 
my life from that species of obscurity which is the 
associate of unprincipled depravity. This it will be 
necessary for me to do on more accounts than one ; 
first, that so many good and learned men among 
the neighboring nations, who read my works, may 
not be induced by this fellow's calumnies to alter 
the favorable opinion which they have formed of 
me ; but may be persuaded that I am not one who 
ever disgraced beauty of sentiment by deformity 
of conduct, or the maxims of a freeman by the 
actions of a slave ; and that the whole tenor of my 
life has, by the grace of God, hitherto been unsul- 
lied by enormity or crime. Next, that those illus- 
trious worthies, who are the objects of my praise, 
may know that nothing could afflict me with more 
shame than to have any vices of mine diminish the 
force or lessen the value of my panegyric upon 
them; and, lastly, that the people of England, 
whom fate, or duty, or their own virtues, have in- 
cited me to defend, may be convinced, from the 
purity and integrity of my life, that my defence, 
if it do not redound to their honor, can never be 
considered as their disgrace. I will now mention 
who and whence I am. I was born at London, of 
an honest family ; my father was distinguished by 
the undeviating integrity of his life ; my mother, 
by the esteem in which she was held, and the alms 
which she bestowed. My father destined me from 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 319 

a child to the pursuits of literature ; and my appetite 
for knowledge was so voracious, that, from twelve 
years of age, I hardly ever left my studies, or 
went to bed before midnight. This primarily led 
to my loss of sight. My eyes were naturally 
weak, and I was subject to frequent headaches; 
which, however, could not chill the ardor of my 
curiosity, or retard the progress of my improve- 
ment. My father had me daily instructed in the 
grammar-school, and by other masters at home. 
He then, after I had acquired a proficiency in va- 
rious languages, and had made a considerable 
progress in philosophy, sent me to the University 
of Cambridge. Here I passed seven years in the 
usual course of instruction and study, with the ap- 
probation of the good, and without any stain upon 
my character, till I took the degree of Master of 
Arts. After this I did not, as the miscreant feigns, 
run away into Italy, but of my own accord re- 
tired to my father's house, whither I was accom- 
panied by the regrets of most of the fellows of 
the college, who showed me no common marks of 
friendship and esteem. On my father's estate, 
where he had determined to pass the remainder 
of his days, I enjoyed an interval of uninterrupted 
leisure, which I entirely devoted to the perusal of 
the Greek and Latin classics ; though I occasion- 
ally visited the metropolis, either for the sake of 
purchasing books, or of learning something new 
in mathematics or in music, in which I, at that 



320 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

time, found a source of pleasure and amusement. 
In this manner I spent five years till my mother's 
death. I then became anxious to visit foreign 
parts, and particularly Italy. My father gave me 
his permission, and I left home with one servant. 
On my departure, the celebrated Henry Wootton, 
who had long been King James's ambassador at 
Venice, gave me a signal proof of his regard, in 
an elegant letter which he wrote, breathing not 
only the warmest friendship, but containing some 
maxims of conduct which I found very useful in 
my travels. The noble Thomas Scudamore, King 
Charles's ambassador, to whom I carried letters of 
recommendation, received me most courteously at 
Paris. His lordship gave me a card of introduc- 
tion to the learned Hugo Grotius, at that time 
ambassador from the queen of Sweden to the 
French court ; whose acquaintance I anxiously de- 
sired, and to whose house I was accompanied by 
some of his lordship's friends. A few days after, 
when I set out for Italy, he gave me letters to the 
English merchants on my route, that they might 
show me any civilities in their power. Taking 
ship at Nice, I arrived at Genoa, and afterwards 
visited Leghorn, Pisa, and Florence. In the latter 
city, which I have always more particularly es- 
teemed for the elegance of its dialect, its genius, ' 
and its taste, I stopped about two months ; when I 
contracted an intimacy with many persons of rank 
and learning ; and was a constant attendant at 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 321 

their literary parties ; a practice which prevails 
there, and tends so much to the diffusion of knowl- 
edge, and the preservation of friendship. No time 
will ever abolish the agreeable recollections which 
I cherish of Jacob Gaddi, Carolo Dati, Frescobal- 
do, Cultellero, Bonomatthai, Clementillo, Fran- 
cisco, and many others. From Florence 1 went 
to Siena, thence to Rome, where, after I had spent 
about two months in viewing the antiquities of 
that renowned city, where I experienced the most 
friendly attentions from Lucas Holstein, and other 
learned and ingenious men, I continued my route to 
Naples. There I was introduced by a certain re- 
cluse, with whom I had travelled from Rome, to 
John Baptista Manso, Marquis of Villa, a noble- 
man of distinguished rank and authority, to whom 
Torquato Tasso, the illustrious poet, inscribed his 
book on friendship. During my stay, he gave me 
singular proofs of his regard ; he himself conduct- 
ed me round the city, and to the palace of the 
viceroy ; and more than once paid me a visit at my 
lodgings. On my departure he gravely apologized 
for not having shown me more civility, which he 
said he had been restrained from doing, because 
I had spoken with so little reserve on matters of 
religion. When I was preparing to pass over into 
Sicily and Greece, the melancholy intelligence 
which I received of the civil commotions in Eng- 
land made me alter my purpose ; for I thought it 
base to be travelling for amusement abroad, while 

14* u 



322 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

my fellow-citizens were fighting for liberty at 
home. While I was on my way back to Rome, 
some merchants informed me that the English Jes- 
uits had formed a plot against me if I returned to 
Rome, because I had spoken too freely on religion ; 
for it was a rule which I laid down to myself in 
these places, never to be the first to begin any con- 
versation on religion ; but if any questions were 
put to me concerning my faith, to declare it with- 
out any reserve or fear. I, nevertheless, returned 
to Rome. I took no steps to conceal either my per- 
son or my character ; and for about the space of 
two months I again openly defended, as I had done 
before, the reformed religion in the very metropolis 
of Popery. By the favor of God, I got safe back 
to Florence, where I was received with as much 
affection as if I had returned to my native coun- 
try. There I stopped as many months as I had 
done before, except that I made an excursion for a 
few days to Lucca ; and, crossing the Apennines, 
passed through Bologna and Ferrara to Venice. 
After I had spent a month in surveying the curi- 
osities of this city, and put on board a ship the 
books which I had collected in Italy, I proceeded 
through Verona and Milan, and along the Leman 
lake to Geneva. The mention of this city brings 
to my recollection the slandering More, and makes 
me again call the Deity to witness, that in all those 
places in which vice meets with so little discour- 
agement, and is practised with so little shame, I 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 323 

never once deviated from the paths of integrity 
and virtue, and perpetually reflected that, though 
my conduct might escape the notice of men, it 
could not elude the inspection of God. At Ge- 
neva I held daily converses with John Deodati, 
the learned Professor of Theology. Then pursuing 
my former route through France, I returned to 
my native country, after an absence of one year 
and about three months ; at the time when Charles, 
having broken the peace, was renewing what is 
called the Episcopal war with the Scots, in which 
the royalists being routed in the first encounter, 
and the English being universally and justly disaf- 
fected, the necessity of his affairs at last obliged 
him to convene a Parliament. As soon as I was 
able, I hired a spacious house in the city for my- 
self and my books ; where I again with rapture 
renewed my literary pursuits, and where I calmly 
awaited the issue of the contest, which I trusted 
to the wise conduct of Providence, and to the 
courage of the people. The vigor of the Parlia- 
ment had begun to humble the pride of the bish- 
ops. As long as the liberty of speech was no 
longer subject to control, all mouths began to be 
opened against the bishops ; some complained of 
the vices of the individuals, others of those of the 
order. They said that it was unjust that they 
alone should differ from the model of other re- 
formed churches ; that the government of the 
Church should be according to the pattern of other 



324 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

churches, and particularly the word of God. This 
awakened all my attention and my zeal. I saw 
that a way was opening for the establishment of 
real liberty ; that the foundation was laying for the 
deliverance of man from the yoke of slavery and 
superstition ; that the principles of religion, which 
were the first objects of our care, would exert a 
salutary influence on the manners and constitution 
of the republic ; and as I had from my youth stud- 
ied the distinctions between religious and civil 
rights, I perceived that if I ever wished to be of 
use, I ought at least not to be wanting to my coun- 
try, to the Church, and to so many of my fellow- 
Christians, in a crisis of so much danger ; I there- 
fore determined to relinquish the other pursuits in 
which I was engaged, and to transfer the whole 
force of my talents and my industry to this one 
important object. I accordingly wrote two books 
to a friend concerning the reformation of the 
Church of England. Afterwards, when two bish- 
ops of superior distinction vindicated their priv- 
ileges against some principal ministers, I thought 
that on those topics, to the consideration of which I 
was led solely by my love of truth, and my rever- 
ence for Christianity, I should not probably write 
worse than those who were contending only for 
their own emoluments and usurpations. I therefore 
answered the one in two books, of which the first is 
inscribed, Concerning Prelatical Episcopacy, and 
the other, Concerning the Mode of Ecclesiastical 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 325 

Government ; and I replied to the other in some 
Animadversions, and soon after in an Apology. 
On this occasion it was supposed that I brought a 
timely succor to the ministers, who were hardly a 
match for the eloquence of their opponents ; and 
from that time I was actively employed in refuting 
any answers that appeared. When the bishops 
could no longer resist the multitude of their assail- 
ants, I had leisure to turn my thoughts to other sub- 
jects ; to the promotion of real and substantial lib- 
erty; which is rather to be sought from within 
than from without ; and whose existence depends, 
not so much on the terror of the sword, as on so- 
briety of conduct, and integrity of life. When, 
therefore, I perceived that there were three species 
of liberty which are essential to the happiness of 
social life, — religious, domestic, and civil ; and as I 
had already written concerning the first, and the 
magistrates were strenuously active in obtaining 
the third, I determined to turn my attention to 
the second, or the domestic species. As this 
seemed to involve three material questions, the 
conditions of the conjugal tie, the education of the 
children, and the free publication of the thoughts, 
I made them objects of distinct consideration. I 
explained my sentiments, not only concerning the 
solemnization of the marriage, but the dissolution, 
if circumstances rendered it necessary ; and I 
drew my arguments from the divine law, which 
Christ did not abolish, or publish another more 



326 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

grievous than that of Moses. I stated my own 
opinions, and those of others, concerning the ex- 
clusive exception of fornication, which our illustri- 
ous Selden has since, in his Hebrew Wife, more 
copiously discussed ; for he in vain makes a vaunt 
of liberty in the senate or in the forum, who lan- 
guishes under the vilest servitude, to an inferior at 
home. On this subject, therefore, I published 
some books which were more particularly necessa- 
ry at that time, when man and wife were often the 
most inveterate foes, when the man often stayed to 
take care of his children at home, while the moth- 
er of the family was seen in the camp of the ene- 
my, threatening death and destruction to her hus- 
band. I then discussed the principles of education 
in a summary manner, but sufficiently copious for 
those who attend seriously to the subject ; than 
which nothing can be more necessary to principle 
the minds of men in virtue, the only genuine 
source of political and individual liberty, the only 
true safeguard of states, the bulwark of their pros- 
perity and renown. Lastly, I wrote my Areopa- 
gitica, in order to deliver the press from the re- 
straints with which it was encumbered, that the 
power of determining what was true and what was 
false, what ought to be published and what to be 
suppressed, might no longer be intrusted to a few 
illiterate and illiberal individuals, who refused their 
sanction to any work which contained views or 
sentiments at all above the level of the vulgar 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 327 

superstition. On the last species of civil liberty, 
I said nothing, because I saw that sufficient atten- 
tion was paid to it by the magistrates ; nor did I 
write anything on the prerogative of the crown, 
till the king, voted an enemy by the Parliament, 
and vanquished in the field, was summoned before 
the tribunal which condemned him to lose his 
head. But when, at length, some Presbyterian 
ministers, who had formerly been the most bitter 
enemies to Charles, became jealous of the growth 
of the Independents, and of their ascendency 
in the Parliament, most tumultuously clamored 
against the sentence, and did all in their power to 
prevent the execution, though they were not an- 
gry, so much on account of the act itself, as be- 
cause it was not the act of their party ; and when 
they dared to affirm, that the doctrine of the Prot- 
estants, and of all the reformed churches, was 
abhorrent to such an atrocious proceeding against 
kings ; I thought that it became me to oppose such 
a glaring falsehood ; and accordingly, without any 
immediate or personal application to Charles, I 
showed, in an abstract consideration of the ques- 
tion, what might lawfully be done against tyrants ; 
and in support of what I advanced, produced the 
opinions of the most celebrated divines ; while I 
vehemently inveighed against the egregious igno- 
rance or effrontery of men, who professed better 
things, and from whom better things might have 
been expected. That book did not make its ap- 






328 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

pearance till after the death of Charles ; and was 
written rather to reconcile the minds of the people 
to the event, than to discuss the legitimacy of that 
particular sentence which concerned the magis- 
trates, and which was already executed. Such 
were the fruits of my private studies, which I gra- 
tuitously presented to the church and to the state : 
and for which I was recompensed by nothing but 
impunity ; though the actions themselves procured 
me peace of conscience, and the approbation of the 
good ; while I exercised that freedom of discussion 
which I loved. Others, without labor or desert, 
got possession of honors and emoluments ; but no 
one ever knew me either soliciting anything my- 
self or through the medium of my friends, ever 
beheld me in a supplicating posture at the doors 
of the senate, or the levees of the great. I usually 
kept myself secluded at home, where my own 
property, part of which had been withheld during 
the civil commotions, and part of which had been 
absorbed in the oppressive contributions which I 
had to sustain, afforded me a scanty subsistence. 
"When I was released from these engagements, and 
thought that I was about to enjoy an interval of 
uninterrupted ease, I turned my thoughts to a con- 
tinued history of my country, from the earliest 
times to the present period. I had already finished 
four books, when, after the subversion of the mon- 
archy, and the establishment of a republic, I was 
surprised by an invitation from the Council of State, 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 329 

who desired my services in the office for foreign af- 
fairs. A book appeared soon after, which was as- 
cribed to the king, and contained the most in- 
vidious charges against the Parliament. I was 
ordered to answer it ; and opposed the Iconoclast 
to his Icon. I did not insult over fallen majesty, 
as is pretended ; I only preferred Queen Truth to 
King Charles. The charge of insult, which I saw 
that the malevolent would urge, I was at some pains 
to remove in the beginning of the work : and as often 
as possible in other places. Salmasius then ap- 
peared, to whom they were not, as More says, 
long in looking about for an opponent, but imme- 
diately appointed me, who happened at the time to 
be present in the council. I have thus, sir, given 
some account of myself, in order to stop your 
mouth, and to remove any prejudices which your 
falsehoods and misrepresentations might cause even 
good men to entertain against me. I tell thee then, 
thou mass of corruption, to hold thy peace ; for the 
more you malign, the more you will compel me to 
confute ; which will only serve to render your in- 
iquity more glaring, and my integrity more mani- 
fest 

John Bradshaw (a name which will be repeated 
with applause wherever liberty is cherished or is 
known) was sprung from a noble family. All his 
early life he sedulously employed in making him- 
self acquainted with the laws of his country ; he 
then practised with singular success and reputation 



330 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

at the bar; he showed himself an intrepid and 
unwearied advocate for the liberties of the people : 
he took an active part in the most momentous 
affairs of the state, and occasionally discharged the 
functions of a judge with the most inviolable in- 
tegrity. At last, when he was entreated by the 
Parliament to preside in the trial of the king, he 
did not refuse the dangerous office. To a profound 
knowledge of the law, he added the most compre- 
hensive views, the most generous sentiments, man- 
ners the most obliging and the most pure. Hence 
he discharged that office with a propriety almost 
without a parallel; he inspired both respect and 
awe ; and though menaced by the daggers of so 
many assassins, he conducted himself with so much 
consistency and gravity, with so much presence of 
mind and so much dignity of demeanor, that he 
seems to have been purposely destined by Provi- 
dence for that part which he so nobly acted on the 
theatre of the world. And his glory is as much 
exalted above that of all other tyrannicides, as it is 
both more humane, more just, and more strikingly 
grand, judicially to condemn a tyrant, than to put 
him to death without a trial. In other respects 
there was no forbidding austerity, no moroseness 
in his manner ; he was courteous and benign ; but 
the great character which he then sustained, he 
with perfect consistency still sustains, so that you 
would suppose that not only then, but in every 
future period of his life, he was sitting in judgment 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 331 

upon the king. In the public business his activity 
is unwearied ; and he alone is equal to a host. At 
home his hospitality is as splendid as his fortune 
will permit : in his friendships there is the most 
inflexible fidelity ; and no one more readily discerns 
merit, or more liberally rewards it. Men of piety 
and learning, ingenious persons in all professions, 
those who have been distinguished by their courage 
or their misfortunes, are free to participate his 
bounty ; and if they want not his bounty, they are 
sure to share his friendship and esteem. He never 
ceases to extol the merits of others, or to conceal 
his own ; and no one was ever more ready to ac- 
cept the excuses, or to pardon the hostility, of his 
political opponents. If he undertake to plead the 
cause of the oppressed, to solicit the favor or depre- 
cate the resentment of the powerful, to reprove the 
public ingratitude towards any particular individual, 
his address and his perseverance are beyond all 
praise. On such occasions no one could desire a 
patron or a friend more able, more zealous, or more 
eloquent. No menace could divert him from his 
purpose ; no intimidation on the one hand, and no 
promise of emolument or promotion on the other, 
could alter the serenity of his countenance, or 

shake the firmness of his soul 

" The army is a hydra-headed monster of accu- 
mulated heresies." Those who speak the truth, 
acknowledge that our army excels all others, not 
only in courage, but in virtue and in piety. Other 



332 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

camps are the scenes of gambling, swearing, riot, 
and debauchery ; in ours, the troops employ what 
leisure they have in searching the Scriptures and 
hearing the word ; nor is there one who thinks it 
more honorable to vanquish the enemy than to 
propagate the truth ; and they not only carry on a 
military warfare against their enemies, but an 
evangelical one against themselves. And indeed 
if we consider the proper objects of war, what em- 
ployment can be more becoming soldiers, who are 
raised to defend the laws, to be the support of our 
political and religious institutions ? Ought they 
not then to be less conspicuous for ferocity than 
for the civil and the softer virtues, and to consider 
it as their true and proper destination, not merely 
to sow the seeds of strife, and reap the harvest of 
destruction, but to procure peace and security for 
the whole human race? If there be any who, 
either from the mistakes of others, or the infirmities 
of their own minds, deviate from these noble ends, 
we ought not to punish them with the sword, but 
rather labor to reform them by reason, by admo- 
nition, by pious supplications to God, to whom 
alone it belongs to dispel all the errors of the mind, 
and to impart to whom he will the celestial light 
of truth. We approve no heresies which are truly 
such ; we do not even tolerate some ; we wish 
them extirpated, but by those means which are 
best suited to the purpose, — by reason and instruc- 
tion, the only safe remedies for disorders of the 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 333 

mind ; and not by the knife or the scourge, as if 

they were seated in the body 

Oliver Cromwell was sprung from a line of illus- 
trious ancestors, who were distinguished for the 
civil functions which they sustained under the 
monarchy, and still more for the part which they 
took in restoring and establishing true religion in 
this country. In the vigor and maturity of his 
life, which he passed in retirement, he was con- 
spicuous for nothing more than for the strictness 
of his religious habits, and the innocence of his 
life ; and he had tacitly cherished in his breast that 
flame of piety which was afterwards to stand him 
in so much stead on the greatest occasions, and in 
the most critical exigencies. In the last Parlia- 
ment which was called by the king, he was elected 
to represent his native town, when he soon became 
distinguished by the justness of his opinions, and 
the vigor and decision of his councils. When the 
sword was drawn, he offered his services, and was 
appointed to a troop of horse, whose numbers were 
soon increased by the pious and the good, who 
flocked from all quarters to his standard ; and in a 
short time he almost surpassed the greatest gen- 
erals in the magnitude and the rapidity of his 
achievements. Nor is this surprising ; for he was 
a soldier disciplined to perfection in the knowledge 
of himself. He had either extinguished, or by 
habit had learned to subdue, the whole host of 
vain hopes, fears, and passions, which infest the 



334 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

soul. He first acquired the government of him- 
self, and over himself acquired the most signal vic- 
tories; so that on the first day he took the field 
against the external enemy, he was a veteran in 
arms, consummately practised in the toils and exi- 
gencies of war. It is not possible for me, in the 
narrow limits in which I circumscribe myself on 
this occasion, to enumerate the many towns which 
he has taken, the many battles which he has won. 
The whole surface of the British empire has been 
the scene of his exploits, and the theatre of his 
triumphs ; which alone would furnish ample ma- 
terials for a history, and want a copiousness of 
narration not inferior to the magnitude and diver- 
sity of the transactions. This alone seems to be a 
sufficient proof of his extraordinary and almost 
supernatural virtue, that by the vigor of his genius, 
or the excellence of his discipline, adapted, not 
more to the necessities of war than to the precepts 
of Christianity, the good and the brave were from 
all quarters attracted to his camp, not only as to 
the best school of military talents, but of piety 
and virtue ; and that during the whole war, and 
the occasional intervals of peace, amid so many 
vicissitudes of faction and of events, he retained 
and still retains the obedience of his troops, not by 
largesses or indulgence, but by his sole authority 
and the regularity of his pay. In this instance his 
fame may rival that of Cyrus, of Epaminondas, or 
any of the great generals of antiquity. Hence he 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 335 

collected an army as numerous and as well equipped 
as any one ever did in so short a time ; which was 
uniformly obedient to his orders, and dear to the 
affections of the citizens ; which was formidable to 
the enemy in the field, but never cruel to those 
who laid down their arms ; which committed no 
lawless ravages on the persons or the property of 
the inhabitants ; who, when they compared their 
conduct with the turbulence, the intemperance, the 
impiety, and the debauchery of the royalists, were 
wont to salute them as friends, and to consider them 
as guests. They were a stay to the good, a terror 
to the evil, and the warmest advocates for every 
exertion of piety and virtue. Nor would it be 
right to pass over the name of Fairfax, who united 
the utmost fortitude with the utmost courage ; and 
the spotless innocence of whose life seemed to 
point him out as the peculiar favorite of Heaven. 
Justly, indeed, may you be excited to receive this 
wreath of praise ; though you have retired as much 
as possible from the world, and seek those shades 
of privacy which were the delight of Scipio. Nor 
was it only the enemy whom you subdued, but you 
have triumphed over that flame of ambition and 
that lust of glory which are wont to make the best 
and the greatest of men their slaves. The purity 
of your virtues and the splendor of your actions 
consecrate those sweets of ease which you enjoy, 
and which constitute the wished-for haven of the 
toils of man. Such was the ease which, when the 



336 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

heroes of antiquity possessed, after a life of exertion 
and glory not greater than yours, the poets, in de- 
spair of finding ideas or expressions better suited 
to the subject, feigned that they were received into 
heaven, and invited to recline at the tables of the 
gods. But whether it were your health, which I 
principally believe, or any other motive which 
caused you to retire, of this I am convinced, that 
nothing could have induced you to relinquish the 
service of your country, if you had not known 
that in your successor liberty would meet with a 
protector, and England with a stay to its safety, 
and a pillar to its glory. For while you, O Crom- 
well, are left among us, he hardly shows a proper 
confidence in the Supreme, who distrusts the se- 
curity of England ; when he sees that you are in 
so special a manner the favored object of the divine 
regard. But there was another department of the 
war, which was destined for your exclusive exer- 
tions. 

Without entering into any length of detail, I 
will, if possible, describe some of the most mem- 
orable actions, with as much brevity as you per- 
formed them with celerity. After the loss of all 
Ireland, with the exception of one city, you in one 
battle immediately discomfited the forces of the 
rebels ; and were busily employed in settling the 
country, when you were suddenly recalled to the 
war in Scotland. Hence you proceeded with un- 
wearied diligence against the Scots, who were on 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 337 

the point of making an irruption into England 
with the king in their train: and in about the 
space of one year you entirely subdued, and added 
to the English dominion, that kingdom which all 
our monarchs, during a period of eight hundred 
years, had in vain struggled to subject. In one 
battle you almost annihilated the remainder of 
their forces, who, in a fit of desperation, had made 
a sudden incursion into England, then almost des- 
titute of garrisons, and got as far as Worcester ; 
where you came up with them by forced marches, 
and captured almost the whole of their nobility. 
A profound peace ensued ; when we found, though 
indeed not then for the first time, that you were as 
wise in the cabinet as valiant in the field. It was 
your constant endeavor in the Senate either to 
induce them to adhere to those treaties which they 
had entered into with the enemy, or speedily to 
adjust others which promised to be beneficial to 
the country. But when you saw that the business 
was artfully procrastinated, that every one was 
more intent on his own selfish interest than on the 
public good, that the people complained of the dis- 
appointments which they had experienced, and the 
fallacious promises by which they had been gulled, 
that they were the dupes of a few overbearing 
individuals, you put an end to their domination. 
A new Parliament is summoned ; and the right of 
election given to those to whom it was expedient. 
They meet; but do nothing; and, after having 
15 v 



338 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

wearied themselves by their mutual dissensions, 
and fully exposed their incapacity to the observa- 
tion of the country, they consent to a voluntary 
dissolution. In this state of desolation, to which 
we were reduced, you, O Cromwell ! alone re- 
mained to conduct the government, and to save 
the country. We all willingly yield the palm of 
sovereignty to your unrivalled ability and virtue, 
except the few among us, who, either ambitious of 
honors which they have not the capacity to sustain, 
or who envy those which are conferred on one 
more worthy than themselves, or else who do not 
know that nothing in the world is more pleasing to 
God, more agreeable to reason, more politically 
just, or more generally useful, than that the su- 
preme power should be vested in the best and the 
wisest of men. Such, O Cromwell, all acknowl- 
edge you to be ; such are the services which you 
have rendered, as the leader of our councils, the 
general of our armies, and the father of your coun- 
try. For this is the tender appellation by which 
all the good among us salute you from the very 
soul. Other names you neither have nor could 
endure ; and you deservedly reject that pomp of 
title which attracts the gaze and admiration of the 
multitude. For what is a title but a certain definite 
mode of dignity ; but actions such as yours surpass, 
not only the bounds of our admiration, but our 
titles ; and, like the points of pyramids, which are 
lost in the clouds, they soar above the possibilities 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 339 

of titular commendation. But since, though it be 
not fit, it may be expedient, that the highest pitch 
of virtue should be circumscribed within the bounds 
of some human appellation, you endured to receive, 
for the public good, a title most like to that of the 
father of your country ; not to exalt, but rather to 
bring you nearer to the level of ordinary men ; 
the title of king was unworthy the transcendent 
majesty of your character. For if you had been 
captivated by a name over which, as a private 
man, you had so completely triumphed and crum- 
bled into dust, you would have been doing the same 
thing as if, after having subdued some idolatrous 
nation by the help of the true God, you should 
afterwards fall down and worship the gods which 
you had vanquished. Do you then, sir, continue 
your course with the same unrivalled magnanimity ; 
it sits well upon you ; — to you our country owes 
its liberties ; nor can you sustain a character at 
once more momentous and more august than that 
of the author, the guardian, and the preserver of 
our liberties ; and hence you have not only eclipsed 
the achievements of all our kings, but even those 
which have been fabled of our heroes. Often 
reflect what a dear pledge the beloved land of 
your nativity has intrusted to your care ; and that 
liberty which she once expected only from the 
chosen flower of her talents and her virtues, she 
now expects from you only, and by you only hopes 
to obtain. Revere the fond expectations which 



340 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

we cherish, the solicitudes of your anxious coun- 
try; revere the looks and the wounds of your 
brave companions in arms, who, under your ban- 
ners, have so strenuously fought for liberty ; revere 
the shades of those who perished in the contest ; 
revere also the opinions and the hopes which for- 
eign states entertain concerning us, who promise 
to themselves so many advantages from that liberty 
which we have so bravely acquired, from the estab- 
lishment of that new government which has begun 
to shed its splendor on the world, which, if it be 
suffered to vanish like a dream, would involve us 
in the deepest abyss of shame ; and lastly, revere 
yourself ; and, after having endured so many suffer- 
ings and encountered so many perils for the sake 
of liberty, do not suffer it, now it is obtained, either 
to be violated by yourself, or in any one instance 
impaired by others. You cannot be truly free un- 
less we are free too ; for such is the nature of 
things, that he who entrenches on the liberty of 
others, is the first to lose his own and become a 
slave. But if you, who have hitherto been the 
patron and tutelary genius of liberty, if you, who 
are exceeded by no one in justice, in piety, and 
goodness, should hereafter invade that liberty which 
you have defended, your conduct must be fatally 
operative, not only against the cause of liberty, 
but the general interests of piety and virtue. Your 
integrity and virtue will appear to have evaporated ; 
your faith in religion to have been small ; your 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 341 

character with posterity will dwindle into insignifi- 
cance, by which a most destructive blow will be 
levelled against the happiness of mankind. The 
work which you have undertaken is of incalculable 
moment, which will thoroughly sift and expose 
every principle and sensation of your heart, which 
will fully display the vigor and genius of your 
character, which will evince whether you really 
possess those great qualities of piety, fidelity, jus- 
tice, and self-denial, which made us believe that 
you were elevated by the special direction of the 
Deity to the highest pinnacle of power. At once 
wisely and discreetly to hold the sceptre over three 
powerful nations, to persuade people to relinquish 
inveterate and corrupt for new and more beneficial 
maxims and institutions, to penetrate into the 
remotest parts of the country, to have the mind 
present and operative in every quarter, to watch 
against surprise, to provide against danger, to re- 
ject the blandishments of pleasure and pomp of 
power ; — these are exertions compared with which 
the labor of war is mere pastime ; winch will re- 
quire every energy and employ every faculty that 
you possess ; which demand a man supported from 
above, and almost instructed by immediate inspira- 
tion. These and more than these are, no doubt, 
the objects which occupy your attention and en- 
gross your soul ; as well as the means by which 
you may accomplish these important ends, and 
render our liberty at once more ample and more 



342 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

secure. And this you can, in my opinion, in no 
other way so readily effect, as by associating in 
your councils the companions of your dangers and 
your toils ; men of exemplary modesty, integrity, 
and courage ; whose hearts have not been hard- 
ened in cruelty, and rendered insensible to pity by 
the sight of so much ravage and so much death, 
but whom it has rather inspired with the love of 
justice, with a respect for religion, and with the 
feeling of compassion, and who are more zealously 
interested in the preservation of liberty, in propor- 
tion as they have encountered more perils in its 
defence. They are not strangers or foreigners, a 
hireling rout scraped together from the dregs of 
the people, but, for the most part, men of the bet- 
ter conditions in life, of families not disgraced if 
not ennobled, of fortunes either ample or mod- 
erate ; and what if some among them are recom- 
mended by their poverty ? for it was not the lust 
of ravage which brought them into the field ; it 
was the calamitous aspect of the times, which, in 
the most critical circumstances, and often amid the 
most disastrous turn of fortune, roused them to 
attempt the deliverance of their country from the 
fangs of despotism. They were men prepared, not 
only to debate, but to fight ; not only to argue in 
the Senate, but to engage the enemy in the field. 
But unless we will continually cherish indefinite 
and illusory expectations, I see not in whom we 
can place any confidence, if not in these men and 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 343 

such as these. We have the surest and most in- 
dubitable pledge of their fidelity in this, that they 
have already exposed themselves to death in the 
service of their country ; of their piety in this, that 
they have been always wont to ascribe the whole 
glory of their successes to the favor of the Deity, 
whose help they have so suppliantly implored, and 
so conspicuously obtained ; of their justice in this, 
that they even brought the king to trial, and when 
his guilt was proved, refused to save his life ; of 
their moderation in our own uniform experience 
of its effects, and because, if by any outrage, they 
should disturb the peace which they have procured, 
they themselves will be the first to feel the miseries 
which it will occasion, the first to meet the havoc 
of the sword, and the first again to risk their fives 
for all those comforts and distinctions which they 
have so happily acquired ; and lastly, of their forti- 
tude in this, that there is no instance of any people 
who ever recovered their liberty with so much 
courage and success ; and therefore let us not sup- 
pose, that there can be any persons who will be 
more zealous in preserving it. I now feel myself 
irresistibly compelled to commemorate the names 
of some of those who have most conspicuously sig- 
nalized themselves in these times : and first thine, 
O Fleetwood ! whom I have known from a boy, to 
the present blooming maturity of your military 
fame, to have been inferior to none in humanity, 
in gentleness, in benignity of disposition, whose 



344 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

intrepidity in the combat, and whose clemency in 
victory, have been acknowledged even by the 
enemy : next thine, O Lambert ! who, with a mere 
handful of men, checked the progress, and sustained 
the attack, of the Duke of Hamilton, who was at- 
tended by the whole flower and vigor of the 
Scottish youth : next thine, O Desborough ! and 
thine, O Hawley ! who wast always conspicuous in 
the heat of the combat, and the thickest of the fight : 
thine, O Overton ! who hast been most endeared 
to me now for so many years by the similitude 
of our studies, the suavity of your manners, and 
the more than fraternal sympathy of our hearts ; 
you who, in the memorable battle of Marston Moor, 
when our left wing was put to the rout, were be- 
held with admiration, making head against the 
enemy with your infantry and repelling his attack, 
amid the thickest of the carnage : and lastly you, 
who, in the Scotch war, when under the auspices 
of Cromwell, occupied the coast of Fife, opened a 
passage beyond Stirling, and made the Scotch of 
the west, and of the north, and even the remotest 
Orkneys, confess your humanity, and submit to 
your power. Besides these, I will mention some as 
celebrated for their political wisdom and their civil 
virtues, whom you, sir, have admitted into your 
councils, and who are known to me by friendship 
or by fame. Whitlocke, Pickering, Strickland, 
Sydenham, Sydney (a name indissolubly attached 
to the interests of liberty), Montacute, Laurence, 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 345 

both of highly cultivated minds and polished taste ; 
besides many other citizens of singular merit, some 
of whom were distinguished by their exertions in 
the senate, and others in the field. To these men, 
whose talents are so splendid, and whose worth 
has been so thoroughly tried, you would without 
doubt do right to trust the protection of our liber- 
ties ; nor would it be easy to say to whom they 
might more safely be intrusted. Then, if you 
leave the Church to its own government, and re- 
lieve yourself and the other public functionaries 
from a charge so onerous, and so incompatible with 
your functions ; and will no longer suffer two pow- 
ers, so different as the civil and the ecclesiastical, to 
commit fornication together, and by their mutual 
and delusive aids in appearance to strengthen, but 
in reality to weaken and finally to subvert, each 
other ; if you shall remove all power of persecution 
out of the Church, (but persecution will never 
cease, so long as men are bribed to preach the Gos- 
pel by a mercenary salary, which is forcibly extorted, 
rather than gratuitously bestowed, which serves 
only to poison religion and to strangle truth,) you 
will then effectually have cast those money-changers 
out of the temple, who do not merely truckle with 
doves but with the Dove itself, with the Spirit of 
the Most High. Then, since there are often in a 
republic men who have the same itch for making a 
multiplicity of laws as some poetasters have for 
making many verses, and since laws are usually 

15* 



346 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

worse in proportion as they are more numerous, if 
you shall not enact so many new laws as you abol- 
ish old, which do not operate so much as warnings 
against evil, as impediments in the way of good ; 
and if you shall retain only those which are neces- 
sary, which do not confound the distinctions of 
good and evil, which while they prevent the frauds 
of the wicked do not prohibit the innocent freedoms 
of the good, which punish crimes, without inter- 
dicting those things which are lawful only on 
account of the abuses to which they may occa- 
sionally be exposed. For the intention of laws is 
to check the commission of vice ; but liberty is the 
best school of virtue, and affords the strongest en- 
couragements to the practice. Then, if you make 
a better provision for the education of our youth 
than has hitherto been made, if you prevent the 
promiscuous instruction of the docile and the in- 
docile, of the idle and the diligent, at the public 
cost, but reserve the rewards of learning for the 
learned, and of merit for the meritorious ; if you 
permit the free discussion of truth without any 
hazard to the author, or any subjection to the 
caprice of an individual, which is the best way to 
make truth flourish and knowledge abound, the 
censure of the half-learned, the envy, the pusil- 
lanimity, or the prejudice which measures the 
discoveries of others, and in short every degree of 
wisdom, by the measure of its own capacity, will 
be prevented from doling out information to us 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 347 

according to their own arbitrary choice. Lastly, 
if you shall not dread to hear any truth or any 
falsehood, whatever it may be, but if you shall 
least of all listen to those who think that they can 
never be free till the liberties of others depend 
on their caprice, and who attempt nothing with 
so much zeal and vehemence as to fetter, not only 
the bodies but the minds of men, who labor to 
introduce into the state the worst of all tyrannies, 
the tyranny of their own depraved habits and per- 
nicious opinions ; you will always be dear to those 
who think not merely that their own sect or fac- 
tion, but that all citizens of all descriptions, should 
enjoy equal rights and equal laws. If there be 
any one who thinks that this is not liberty enough, 
he appears to me to be rather inflamed with the 
lust of ambition or of anarchy, than with the love 
of a genuine and well-regulated liberty ; and par- 
ticularly since the circumstances of the country, 
which have been so convulsed by the storms of 
faction, which are yet hardly still, do not permit 
us to adopt a more perfect or desirable form of 
government. 

For it is of no little consequence O citizens, by 
what principles you are governed, either in acquir- 
ing liberty, or in attaining it when acquired. And 
unless that liberty, which is of such a kind as arms 
can neither procure nor take away, which alone is 
the fruit of piety, of justice, of temperance, and un- 
adulterated virtue, shall have taken deep root in 



348 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

your minds and hearts, there will not long be 
wanting one who will snatch from you by treach- 
ery what you have acquired by arms. War has 
made many great whom peace makes small. If, 
after being released from the toils of war, you neg- 
lect the arts of peace, if your peace and your lib- 
erty be a state of warfare, if war be your only vir- 
tue, the summit of your praise, you will, believe 
me, soon find peace the most adverse to your in- 
terests. Your peace will be only a more distress- 
ing war ; and that which you imagined liberty will 
prove the worst of slavery. Unless by the means 
of piety, not frothy and loquacious, but operative, 
unadulterated, and sincere, you clear the horizon 
of the mind from those mists of superstition which 
arise from the ignorance of true religion, you will 
always have those who will bend your necks to the 
yoke as if you were brutes, who, notwithstanding all 
your triumphs, will put you up to the highest bid- 
der, as if you were mere booty made in war ; and 
will find an exuberant source of wealth in your ig- 
norance and superstition. Unless you will subju- 
gate the propensity to avarice, to ambition, and 
sensuality, and expel all luxury from yourselves 
and from your families, you will find that you have 
cherished a more stubborn and intractable despot 
at home than you ever encountered in the field ; 
and even your very bowels will be continually 
teeming with an intolerable progeny of tyrants. 
Let those be the first enemies whom you subdue ; 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 349 

this constitutes the campaign of peace ; these are 
triumphs, difficult indeed, but bloodless; and far 
more honorable than those trophies which are pur- 
chased only by slaughter and by rapine. Unless 
you are victors in this service, it is in vain that you 
have been victorious over the despotic enemy in 
the field. For if you think that it is a more grand, 
a more beneficial, or a more wise policy, to invent 
subtle expedients for increasing the revenue, to 
multiply our naval and military force, to rival in 
craft the ambassadors of foreign states, to form skil- 
ful treaties and alliances, than to administer unpol- 
luted justice to the people, to redress the injured, 
and to succor the distressed, and speedily to restore 
to every one his own, you are involved in a cloud 
of error ; and too late will you perceive, when the 
illusion of those mighty benefits has vanished, that 
in neglecting these, which you now think inferior 
considerations, you have only been precipitating 
your own ruin and despair. The fidelity of ene- 
mies and allies is frail and perishing, unless it be 
cemented by the principles of justice ; that wealth 
and those honors, which most covet, readily change 
masters; they forsake the idle, and repair where 
virtue, where industry, where patience flourish 
most. Thus nation precipitates the downfall of 
nation ; thus the more sound part of one people 
subverts the more corrupt ; thus you obtained the 
ascendant over the royalists. If you plunge into 
the same depravity, if you imitate their excesses, 



350 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

and hanker after the same vanities, you will 
become royalists as well as they, and liable to be 
subdued by the same enemies, or by others in your 
turn ; who, placing their reliance on the same re- 
ligious principles, the same patience, the same in- 
tegrity and discretion which made you strong, 
will deservedly triumph over you who are im- 
mersed in debauchery, in the luxury and the sloth 
of kings. Then, as if God was weary of protect- 
ing you, you will be seen to have passed through 
the fire, that you might perish in the smoke ; the 
contempt which you will then experience will be 
great as the admiration which you now enjoy ; and, 
what may in future profit others, but cannot bene- 
fit yourselves, you will leave a salutary proof what 
great things the solid reality of virtue and of piety 
might have effected, when the mere counterfeit 
and varnished resemblance could attempt such 
mighty achievements, and make such considerable 
advances toward the execution. For, if either 
through your want of knowledge, your want of 
constancy, or your want of virtue, attempts so no- 
ble, and actions so glorious, have had an issue so 
unfortunate, it does not therefore follow, that bet- 
ter men should be either less daring in their pro- 
jects or less sanguine in their hopes. But from 
such an abyss of corruption into which you so 
readily fall, no one, not even Cromwell himself, 
nor a whole nation of Brutuses, if they were alive, 
could deliver you if they would, or would deliver 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 351 

you if they could. For who would vindicate your 
right of unrestrained suffrage, or of choosing what 
representatives you liked best, merely that you 
might elect the creatures of your own faction, 
whoever they might be, or him, • however small 
might be his worth, who would give you the most 
lavish feasts, and enable you to drink to the great- 
est excess ? Thus not wisdom and authority, but 
turbulence and gluttony, would soon exalt the vil- 
est miscreants from our taverns and our brothels, 
from our towns and villages, to the rank and dig- 
nity of senators. For, should the management of 
the republic be intrusted to persons to whom no 
one would willingly intrust the management of his 
private concerns ; and the treasury of the state be 
left to the care of those who had lavished their own 
fortunes in an infamous prodigality ? Should they 
have the charge of the public purse, which they 
would soon convert into a private, by their unprin- 
cipled peculations ? Are they fit to be the legis- 
lators of a whole people who themselves know not 
what law, what reason, what right and wrong, 
what crooked and straight, what licit and illicit 
means ? who think that all power consists in out- 
rage, all dignity in the parade of insolence ? who 
neglect every other consideration for the corrupt 
gratification of their friendships, or the prosecution 
of their resentments ? who disperse their own re- 
lations and creatures through the provinces, for 
the sake of levying taxes and confiscating goods ; 



352 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE OF 

men, for the greater part, the most profligate and 
vile, who buy up for themselves what they pretend 
to expose to sale, who thence collect an exorbitant 
mass of wealth, which they fraudulently divert 
from the public service ; who thus spread their 
pillage through the country, and in a moment 
emerge from penury and rags to a state of splen- 
dor and of wealth ? Who could endure such 
thievish servants, such vicegerents of their lords ? 
"Who could believe that the masters and the pa- 
trons of a banditti could be the proper guardians 
of liberty ? or who would suppose that he should 
ever be made one hair more free by such a set of 
public functionaries, (though they might amount 
to five hundred elected in this manner from the 
counties and boroughs,) when among them who 
are the very guardians of liberty, and to whose 
custody it is committed, there must be so many, 
who know not either how to use or to enjoy liber- 
ty, who neither understand the principles, nor 
merit the possession ? But, what is worthy of 
remark, those who are the most unworthy of liber- 
ty are wont to behave most ungratefully towards 
their deliverers. Among such persons, who would 
be willing either to fight for liberty, or to encoun- 
ter the least peril in its defence ? It is not agreea- 
ble to the nature of things that such persons ever 
should be free. However much they may brawl 
about liberty, they are slaves, both at home and 
abroad, but without perceiving it ; and when they 



THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 353 

do perceive it, like unruly horses that are impatient 
of the bit, they will endeavor to throw off the yoke, 
not from the love of genuine liberty, (which a good 
man only loves and knows how to obtain,) but from 
the impulses of pride and little passions. But 
though they often attempt it by arms, they will 
make no advances to the execution; they may 
change their masters, but will never be able to get 
rid of their servitude. This often happened to the 
ancient Romans, wasted by excess, and enervated 
by luxury : and it has still more so been the fate of 
the moderns ; when, after a long interval of years, 
they aspired, under the auspices of Crescentius, No- 
mentanus, and afterwards of Nicholas Rentius, who 
had assumed the title of Tribune of the People, to re- 
store the splendor and re-establish the government 
of ancient Rome. For, instead of fretting with 
vexation, or thinking that you can lay the blame 
on any one but yourselves, know that to be free is 
the same thing as to be pious, to be wise, to be tem- 
perate and just, to be frugal and abstinent, and 
lastly, to be magnanimous and brave ; so to be the 
opposite of all these is the same as to be a slave ; 
and it usually happens, by the appointment, and 
as it were retributive justice of the Deity, that 
that people which cannot govern themselves, and 
moderate their passions, but crouch under the slav- 
ery of their lusts, should be delivered up to the 
sway of those whom they abhor, and made to sub- 
mit to an involuntary servitude. It is also sane- 



354 FROM THE SECOND DEFENCE. 

tioned by the dictates of justice and by the consti- 
tution of nature, that he who, from the imbecility 
or derangement of his intellect, is incapable of 
governing himself, should, like a minor, be com- 
mitted to the government of another ; and least of 
all should he be appointed to superintend the af- 
fairs of others or the interests of the state. You, 
therefore, who wish to remain free, either instant- 
ly be wise, or, as soon as possible, cease to be 
fools ; if you think slavery an intolerable evil, 
learn obedience to reason and the government of 
yourselves ; and finally bid adieu to your dissen- 
sions, your jealousies, your superstitions, your out- 
rages, your rapine, and your lusts. Unless you 
will spare no pains to effect this, you must be 
judged unfit, both by God and mankind, to be 
intrusted with the possession of liberty and the 
administration of the government ; but will rather, 
like a nation in a state of pupilage, want some ac- 
tive and courageous guardian to undertake the 
management of your affairs. 




FROM 

A TREATISE OF CIVIL POWER IN 
ECCLESIASTICAL CAUSES. 




WO things there be, which have been 
ever found working much mischief to 
the Church of God and the advance- 
ment of truth : force on one side re- 
straining, and hire on the other side corrupting, 
the teachers thereof. Few ages have been since 
the ascension of our Saviour, wherein the one of 
these two, or both together, have not prevailed. 
It can be at no time, therefore, unseasonable to 
speak of these things ; since by them the Church 
is either in continual detriment and oppression, or 

in continual danger 

It will require no great labor of exposition to 
unfold what is here meant by matters of religion ; 
being as soon apprehended as defined, such things 
as belong chiefly to the knowledge and service of 
God; and are either above the reach and light of 
nature without revelation from above, and there- 
fore liable to be variously understood by human 
reason, or such things as are enjoined or forbidden 



356 A TREATISE OF CIVIL POWER 

by divine precept, which else by the light of reason 
would seem indifferent to be done or not done ; 
and so likewise must needs appear to every man 
as the precept is understood. Whence I here mean 
by conscience or religion that full persuasion, 
whereby we are assured, that our belief and prac- 
tice, as far as we are able to apprehend and prob- 
ably make appear, is according to the will of God 
and his Holy Spirit within us, which we ought to 
follow much rather than any law of man, as not 
only his word everywhere bids us, but the very 

dictate of reason tells us 

It cannot be denied, being the main foundation 
of our Protestant religion, that we of these ages, 
having no other divine rule or authority from with- 
out us, warrantable to one another as a common 
ground, but the holy Scripture, and no other within 
us but the illumination of the Holy Spirit, so in- 
terpreting that Scripture as warrantable only to 
ourselves, and to such whose consciences we can so 
persuade, can have no other ground in matters of 
religion but only from the Scriptures. And these 
being not possible to be understood without this 
divine illumination, which no man can know at all 
times to be in himself, much less to be at any time 
for certain in any other, it follows clearly, that no 
man or body of men in these times can be the 
infallible judges or determiners in matters of re- 
ligion to any other men's consciences but their 
own 



IN ECCLESIASTICAL CAUSES. 357 

Seeing, therefore, that no man, no synod, no 
session of men, though called the Church, can 
judge definitely the sense of Scripture to another 
man's conscience, which is well known to be a 
general maxim of the Protestant religion ; it fol- 
lows plainly, that he who holds in religion that 
belief, or those opinions, which to his conscience 
and utmost understanding appear with most evi- 
dence or probability in the Scripture, though to 
others he seem erroneous, can no more be justly 
censured for a heretic than his censurers ; who do 
but the same thing themselves, while they censure 
him for so doing. For ask them, or any Prot- 
estant, which hath most authority, the Church or 
the Scripture ? They will answer, doubtless, that 
the Scripture : and what hath most authority, that 
no doubt but they will confess is to be followed. 
He then, who to his best apprehension follows the 
Scripture, though against any point of doctrine by 
the whole Church received, is not the heretic ; but 
he who follows the Church against his conscience 
and persuasion grounded on the Scripture. To 
make this yet more undeniable, I shall only borrow 
a plain simile, the same which our own writers, 
when they would demonstrate plainest, that we 
rightly prefer the Scripture before the Church, use 
frequently against the Papist in this manner. As 
the Samaritans believed Christ, first for the 
woman's word, but next and much rather for his 
own, so we the Scripture: first on the Church's 



358 A TREATISE OF CIVIL POWER 

word, but afterwards and much more for its own, 
as the Word of God; yea, the Church itself we 
believe then for the Scripture. The inference of 
itself follows : If by the Protestant doctrine we 
believe the Scripture, not for the Church's saying, 
but for its own, as the Word of God, then ought 
we to believe what in our conscience we apprehend 
the Scripture to say, though the visible Church, 
with all her doctors, gainsay : and being taught to 
believe them only for the Scripture, they who so 
do are not heretics, but the best Protestants : and 
by their opinions, whatever they be, can hurt no 
Protestant, whose rule is not to receive them but 
from the Scripture : which to interpret convincingly 
to his own conscience, none is able but himself, 
guided by the Holy Spirit ; and not so guided, 
none than he to himself can be a worse deceiver. 
To Protestants, therefore, whose common rule and 
touchstone is the Scripture, nothing can with more 
conscience, more equity, nothing more Protestantly 
can be permitted, than a free and lawful debate at 
all times by writing, conference, or disputation of 
what opinion soever, disputable by Scripture : con- 
cluding that no man in religion is properly a heretic 
at this day, but he who maintains traditions or 
opinions not probable by Scripture, who, for aught 
I know, is the Papist only; he the only heretic, 
who counts all heretics but himself. .... 

How many persecutions, then, imprisonments, 
banishments, penalties, and stripes; how much 



IN ECCLESIASTICAL CAUSES. 359 

bloodshed have the forcers of conscience to answer 
for, and Protestants rather than Papists ! For the 
Papist, judging by his principles, punishes them 
who believe not as the Church believes, though 
against the Scripture ; but the Protestant, teaching 
every one to believe the Scripture, though against 
the Church, counts heretical, and persecutes against 
his own principles, them who in any particular so 
believe as he in general teaches them ; them who 
most honor and believe divine Scripture, but not 
against it any human interpretation, though univer- 
sal ; them who interpret Scripture only to themselves, 
which, by his own position, none but they to them- 
selves can interpret : them who use the Scripture 
no otherwise by his own doctrine to their edifica- 
tion, than he himself uses it to their punishing ; 
and so whom his doctrine acknowledges a true 
believer, his discipline persecutes as a heretic. 
The Papist exacts our belief as to the Church due 
above Scripture ; and by the Church, which is the 
whole people of God, understands the pope, the 
general councils, prelatical only, and the surnamed 
fathers : but the forcing Protestant, though he deny 
such belief to any Church whatsoever, yet takes it 
to himself and his teachers, of far less authority 
than to be called the Church, and above Scripture 
believed : winch renders his practice both contrary 
to his belief, and far worse than that belief which 
he condemns in the Papist. By all which, well 
considered, the more he professes to be a true 



360 A TREATISE OF CIVIL POWER 

Protestant, the more he hath to answer for his 
persecuting than a Papist. No Protestant, there- 
fore, of what sect soever, following Scripture only, 
which is the common sect wherein they all agree, 
and the granted rule of every man's conscience to 
himself, ought by the common doctrine of Protest- 
ants to be forced or molested for religion 

Seducement is to be hindered by fit and proper 
means ordained in Church discipline, by instant 
and powerful demonstration to the contrary; by 
opposing truth to error, no unequal match ; truth 
the strong, to error the weak, though sly and shift- 
ing. Force is no honest confutation, but uneffect- 
ual, and for the most part unsuccessful, ofttimes 
fatal to them who use it : sound doctrine, diligently 
and duly taught, is of herself both sufficient, and 
of herself (if some secret judgment of God hinder 
not) always prevalent against seducers 

Ill was our condition changed from legal to evan- 
gelical, and small advantage gotten by the Gospel, 
if, for the spirit of adoption to freedom promised us, 
we receive again the spirit of bondage to fear; if 
our fear, which was then servile towards God only, 
must be now servile in religion towards men: 
strange also and preposterous fear, if, when and 
wherein it hath attained by the redemption of our 
Saviour to be filial only towards God, it must be 
now servile towards the magistrate : who, by sub- 
jecting us to his punishment in these things, brings 
back into religion that law of terror and satisfaction 



IN ECCLESIASTICAL CAUSES. 361 

belonging now only to civil crimes; and thereby 
in effect abolishes the Gospel, by establishing again 
the law to a far worse yoke of servitude upon us 
than before. It will therefore not misbecome the 
meanest Christian to put in mind Christian magis- 
trates, and so much the more freely by how much 
the more they desire to be thought Christian, (for 
they will be thereby, as they ought to be in these 
things, the more our brethren and the less our 
lords,) that they meddle not rashly with Christian 
liberty, the birthright and outward testimony of 
our adoption ; lest while they little think it, nay, 
think they do God service, they themselves, like 
the sons of that bondwoman, be found persecuting 
them who are freeborn of the Spirit, and, by a 
sacrilege of not the least aggravation, bereaving 
them of that sacred liberty, which our Saviour with 
his own blood purchased for them. 



16 




FROM 



CONSIDERATIONS 

TOUCHING THE LIKELIEST MEANS TO REMOVE 
HIRELINGS OUT OF THE CHURCH. 




HE former treatise, which leads in this, 
began with two things ever found 
working much mischief to religion, 
%> force on the one side restraining, and 
hire on the other side corrupting, the teachers 
thereof. The latter of these is by much the more 
dangerous ; for under force, though no thanks to 
the forcers, true religion ofttimes best thrives and 
flourishes ; but the corruption of teachers, most com- 
monly the effect of hire, is the very bane of truth 
in them who are so corrupted. Of force not to be 
used in matters of religion, I have already spoken ; 
and so stated matters of conscience and religion 
in faith and divine worship, and so severed them 
from blasphemy and heresy, the one being such 
properly as is despiteful, the other such as stands 
not to the rule of Scripture, and so both of them 
not matters of religion, but rather against it, that 
to them who will yet use force, this only choice can 



MEANS TO REMOVE HIRELINGS. 363 

be left, whether they will force them to believe, to 
whom it is not given from above, being not forced 
thereto by any principle of the Gospel, which is 
now the only dispensation of God to all men : or 
whether, being Protestants, they will punish in 
those things wherein the Protestant religion denies 
them to be judges, either in themselves infallible, 
or to the consciences of other men ; or whether, 
lastly, they think fit to punish error, supposing 
they can be infallible that it is so, being not wilful 
but conscientious, and, according to the best light 
of him who errs, grounded on Scripture : which 
kind of eiTor all men religious, or but only reason- 
able, have thought worthier of pardon, and the 
growth thereof to be prevented by spiritual means 
and Church discipline, not by civil laws and out- 
ward force, since it is God only who gives as well 
to believe aright, as to believe at all ; and by 
those means, which he ordained sufficiently in his 
Church to the full execution of his divine purpose 
in the Gospel. It remains now to speak of hire, 
the other evil so mischievous in religion ; whereof 
I promised then to speak further, when I should 
find God disposing me, and opportunity inviting. 
Opportunity I find now inviting : and apprehend 
therein the concurrence of God disposing ; since 
the maintenance of Church ministers, a thing not 
properly belonging to the magistrate, and yet with 
such importunity called for, and expected from 
him, is at present under public debate. Wherein, 



3G4 THE LIKELIEST MEANS TO REMOVE 

lest anything may happen to be determined and 
established prejudicial to the right and freedom 
of the Church, or advantageous to such as may be 
found hirelings therein, it will be now most sea- 
sonable, and in these matters, wherein every 
Christian hath his free suffrage, no way misbecom- 
ing Christian meekness to offer freely, without 
disparagement to the wisest, such advice as God 
shall incline him and enable him to propound: 
since heretofore in commonwealths of most fame 
for government, civil laws were not established 
till they had been first for certain days published 
to the view of all men, that whoso pleased might 
speak freely his opinion thereof, and give in his 
exceptions, ere the law could pass to a full estab- 
lishment. And where ought this equity to have 
more place, than in the liberty which is insepara- 
ble from Christian religion ? This, I am not ig- 
norant, will be a work unpleasing to some : but 
what truth is not hateful to some or other, as this, 
in likelihood, will be to none but hirelings. And 
if there be among them who hold it their duty to 
speak impartial truth, as the work of their minis- 
try, though not performed without money, let them 
not envy others who think the same no less their 
duty by the general office of Christianity, to speak 
truth, as in all reason may be thought, more im- 
partiallv and unsuspectedly without money. 

Hire of itself is neither a thing unlawful, nor a 
word of any evil note, signifying no more than a 



HIRELINGS OUT OF THE CHURCH. 365 

due recompense or reward ; as when our Saviour 
saitli, " The laborer is worthy of his hire." That 
which makes it so dangerous in the Church, and 
properly makes the hireling, a word always of evil 
signification, is either the excess thereof, or the un- 
due manner of giving and taking it. What harm 
the excess thereof brought to the Church, perhaps 
was not found by experience till the days of Con- 
stantine ; who out of his zeal thinking he could 
be never too liberally a nursing father of the 
Church, might be not unfitly said to have either 
overlaid it or choked it in the nursing. Which 
was foretold, as is recorded in ecclesiastical tradi- 
tions, by a voice heard from heaven, on the very 
day that those great donations and Church reve- 
nues were given, crying aloud, " This day is poi- 
son poured into the Church." Which the event 
soon after verified, as appears by another no less 
ancient observation, " That religion brought forth 
wealth, and the daughter devoured the mother." 
But long ere wealth came into the Church, so soon 
as any gain appeared in religion, hirelings were ap- 
parent ; drawn in long before by the very scent 
thereof. Judas therefore, the first hireling, for 
want of present hire answerable to his coveting, 
from the small number or the meanness of such as 
then were the religious, sold the religion itself with 
the founder thereof, his master. Simon Magus the 
next, in hope only that preaching and the gifts of the 
Holy Ghost would prove gainful, offered before- 



366 THE LIKELIEST MEANS TO REMOVE 

hand a sum of money to obtain them. Not long 
after, as the apostle foretold, hirelings like wolves 

came in by herds Neither came they in of 

themselves only, but invited ofttimes by a corrupt 
audience : 2 Tim. iv. 3 

Thus we see, that not only the excess of hire in 
wealthiest times, but also the undue and vicious 
taking or giving it, though but small or mean, as 
in the primitive times, gave to hirelings occasion, 
though not intended, yet sufficient to creep at first 
into the Church. Which argues also the difficulty, 
or rather the impossibility, to remove them quite, 
unless every minister were, as St. Paul, contented 
to preach gratis ; but few such are to be found. 
As therefore we cannot justly take away all hire 
in the Church, because we cannot otherwise quite 
remove all hirelings, so are we not, for the impos- 
sibility of removing them all, to use therefore no 
endeavor that fewest may come in ; but rather, in 
regard the evil, do what we can, will always be in- 
cumbent and unavoidable, to use our utmost dili- 
gence how it may be least dangerous 

What recompense ought to be given to Church 
ministers, God hath answerably ordained according 
to that difference which he hath manifestly put be- 
tween those his two great dispensations, the Law 
and the Gospel. Under the Law he gave them 
tithes ; under the Gospel, having left all things in 
his Church to charity and Christian freedom, he 
hath given them only what is justly given them. 



HIRELINGS OUT OF THE CHURCH. 367 

That, as well under the Gospel as under the Law, 
say our English divines, and they only of all Prot- 
estants, is tithes : and they say true, if any man 
be so minded to give them of his own the tenth 
or twentieth ; but that the law therefore of tithes 
is in force under the Gospel, all other Protestant 
divines, though equally concerned, yet constantly 
deny. For although hire to the laborer be of 
moral and perpetual right, yet that special kind of 
hire, the tenth, can be of no right or necessity, but 

to that special labor for which God ordained it 

What if they who are to be instructed be not 
able to maintain a minister, as in many villages ? 
I answer that the Scripture shows in many places 
what ought to be done herein. First, I offer it to 
the reason of any man, whether he think the 
knowledge of Christian religion harder than any 
other art or science to attain. I suppose he will 
grant that it is far easier, both of itself, and in re- 
gard of God's assisting Spirit, not particularly 
promised us to the attainment of any other knowl- 
edge, but of this only : since it was preached as 
well to the shepherds of Bethlehem by angels, as 
to the Eastern wise men by that star : and our 
Saviour declares himself anointed to preach the 
Gospel to the poor, Luke iv. 18 ; then surely to 
their capacity. They who after him first taught 
it, were otherwise unlearned men : they who be- 
fore Hus and Luther first reformed it, were for 
the meanness of their condition called, " the poor 



368 THE LIKELIEST MEANS TO REMOVE 

men of Lyons " : and in Flanders at this day, " le 
Gueus," which is to say, beggars. Therefore are 
the Scriptures translated into every vulgar tongue, 
as being held in main matters of belief and salva- 
tion plain and easy to the poorest : and such no 
less than their teachers have the spirit to guide 
them in all truth, John xiv. 26, and xvi. 13. 
Hence we may conclude, if men be not all their 
lifetime under a teacher to learn logic, natural 
philosophy, ethics, or mathematics, which are 
more difficult, that certainly it is not necessary to 
the attainment of Christian knowledge, that men 
should sit all their life long at the feet of a pulpited 
divine ; while he, indeed a lollard over his elbow- 
cushion, in almost the seventh part of forty or fifty 
years teaches them scarce half the principles of re- 
ligion ; and his sheep ofttimes sit the while to as lit- 
tle purpose of benefiting, as the sheep in their pews 
at Smithfield ; and for the most part by some simony 
or other bought and sold like them : or, if this 
comparison be too low, like those women, 1 Tim. 
iii. T, "Ever learning and never attaining " ; yet 
not so much through their own fault, as through 
the unskilful and immethodical teaching of their 
pastor, teaching here and there at random out of 
this or that text, as his ease or fancy, and ofttimes 
as his stealth guides him. Seeing then that Chris- 
tian religion may be so easily attained, and by 
meanest capacities, it cannot be much difficult to 
find ways, both how the poor, yea, all men, may 



HIRELINGS OUT OF THE CHURCH 369 

be soon taught what is to be known of Christiani- 
ty, and they who teach them, recompensed. First, 
if ministers of their own accord, who pretend that 
they are called and sent to preach the Gospel, 
those especially who have no particular flock, 
would imitate our Saviour and his disciples, who 
went preaching through the villages, not only 
through the cities, and there preached to the poor 
as well as to the rich, looking for no recompense 
but in heaven. 

But they will soon reply, We ourselves have 
not wherewithal ; who shall bear the charges 
of our journey ? To whom it may as soon be an- 
swered, that in likelihood they are not poorer than 
they who did thus ; and if they have not the same 
faith which those disciples had to trust in God and 
the promise of Christ for their maintenance as 
they did, and yet intrude into the ministry without 
any livelihood of their own, they cast themselves 
into miserable hazard or temptation, and ofttimes 
into a more miserable necessity, either to starve, 
or to please their paymasters rather than God ; and 
give men just cause to suspect, that they came, 
neither called nor sent from above to preach the 
word, but from below, by the instinct of their own 
hunger, to feed upon the Church. Yet grant it 
needful to allow them both the charges of their 
journey and the hire of their labor, it will belong 
next to the charity of richer congregations, where 
16* x 



870 THE LIKELIEST MEANS TO REMOTE 

most commonly they abound with teachers, to 
send some of their number to the villages round, 
as1;he Apostles from Jerusalem sent Peter and John 
to the city and villages of Samaria, Acts viii. 14, 
25 ; or as the church at Jerusalem sent Barnabas 
to Antioch, chap. xi. 22, and other churches 
joining sent Luke to travel with Paul, 2 Cor. viii. 
19 : though whether they had their charges borne 
by the church or no, it be not recorded. If it be 
objected, that this itinerary preaching will not 
serve to plant the Gospel in those places, unless 
they who are sent abide there some competent 
time ; I answer, that if they stay there a year or 
two, which was the longest time usually stayed by 
the apostles in one place, it may suffice to teach 
them who will attend and learn all the points of 
religion necessary to salvation ; then sorting them 
into several congregations of a moderate number, 
out of the ablest and zealousest among them to 
create elders, who, exercising and requiring from 
themselves what they have learned, (for no learn- 
ing is retained without constant exercise and me- 
thodical repetition,) may teach and govern the 
rest : and so exhorted to continue faithful and 
steadfast, they may securely be committed to the 
providence of God and the guidance of his Holy 
Spirit, till God may offer some opportunity to visit 
them again, and to confirm them : which when 
they have done, they have done as much as the 
Apostles were wont to do in propagating the Gos- 
pel 



HIRELINGS OUT OF THE CHURCH. 371 

To these I might add other helps, which we 
enjoy now, to make more easy the attainment of 
Christian religion by the meanest : the entire Scrip- 
ture translated into English with plenty of notes ; 
and somewhere or other, I trust, may be found 
some wholesome body of divinity, as they call it, 
without school-terms and metaphysical notions, 
which have obscured rather than explained our 
religion, and made it seem difficult without cause. 
Thus taught once for all, and thus now and then 
visited and confirmed, in the most destitute and 
poorest places of the land, under the government 
of their own elders performing all ministerial offices 
among them, they may be trusted to meet and 
edify one another, whether in church or chapel, or 
to save them the trudging of many miles thither, 
nearer home, though in a house or barn. For 
notwithstanding the gaudy superstition of some de- 
voted still ignorantly to temples, we may be well 
assured, that he who disdained not to be laid in a 
manger, disdains not to be preached in a barn ; 
and that by such meetings as these, being indeed 
most apostolical and primitive, they will in a short 
time advance more in Christian knowledge and ref- 
ormation of life, than by the many years' preaching 
of such an incumbent, I may say, such an incubus 
ofttimes, as will be meanly hired to abide long in 
those places. They have this left perhaps to ob- 
ject further ; that to send thus, and to maintain, 
though but for a year or two, ministers and teach- 



372 THE LIKELIEST MEANS TO REMOVE 

ers in several places, would prove chargeable to 
the churches, though in towns and cities round- 
about. To whom again I answer, that it was not 
thought so by them who first thus propagated the 
Gospel, though but few in number to us, and 
much less able to sustain the expense. Yet this 
expense would be much less than to hire incum- 
bents, or rather incumbrances, for lifetime ; and a 
great means (which is the subject of this discourse) 

to diminish hirelings 

But that the magistrate either out of that Church 
revenue which remains yet in his hand, or estab- 
lishing any other maintenance instead of tithe, 
should take into his own power the stipendiary 
maintenance of church-ministers, or compel it by 
law, can stand neither with the people's right, nor 
with Christian liberty, but would suspend the 
Church wholly upon the state, and turn her minis- 
ters into state pensioners. And for the magistrate 
in person of a nursing father to make the Church 
his mere ward, as always in minority, the Church 
to whom he ought as a magistrate, Isa. xlix. 23, 
" to bow down with his face toward the earth, and 
lick up the dust of her feet"; her to subject to 
his political drifts or conceived opinions, by master- 
ing her revenue ; and so by his examinant com- 
mittees to circumscribe her free election of minis- 
ters, is neither just nor pious ; no honor done to 
the Church, but a plain dishonor : and upon her 
whose only head is in heaven, yea, upon him, who 



HIRELINGS OUT OF THE CHURCH. 373 

is only head, sets another in effect, and, which is 
most monstrous, a human on a heavenly, a carnal 
on a spiritual, a political head on an ecclesiastical 
body ; which, at length, by such heterogeneal, such 
incestuous conjunction, transforms her ofttimes into 
a beast of many heads and many horns. For if the 
Church be of all societies the holiest on earth, and 
so to be reverenced by the magistrate ; not to 
trust her with her own belief and integrity, and 
therefore not with the keeping, at least with the 
disposing, of what revenue should be found justly 
and lawfully her own, is to count the Church not 
a holy congregation, but a pack of giddy or dis- 
honest persons, to be ruled by civil power in sacred 

affairs 

Heretofore in the first evangelic times, (and it 
were happy for Christendom if it were so again,) 
ministers of the Gospel were by nothing else dis- 
tinguished from other Christians, but by their 
spiritual knowledge and sanctity of life, for which 
the Church elected them to be her teachers and 
overseers, though not thereby to separate them 
from whatever calling she then found them follow- 
ing besides ; as the example of St. Paul declares, 
and the first times of Christianity. When once 
they affected to be called a clergy, and became, as 
it were, a peculiar tribe of Levites, a party, a dis- 
tinct order in the commonwealth, bred up for divines 
in babbling schools, and fed at the public cost, good 
for nothing eke but what was good for nothing, 



374 THE LIKELIEST MEANS TO REMOVE 

they soon grew idle : that idleness, with fulness of 
bread, begat pride and perpetual contention with 
their feeders, the despised laity, through all ages 
ever since ; to the perverting of religion, and the 
disturbance of all Christendom. And we may 
confidently conclude, it never will be otherwise 
while they are thus upheld undepending on the 
Church, on which alone they anciently depended, 
and are by the magistrate publicly maintained, a 
numerous faction of indigent persons, crept for the 
most part out of extreme want and bad nurture, 
claiming by divine right and freehold the tenth of 
our estates, to monopolize the ministry as their 
peculiar, which is free and open to all able Chris- 
tians, elected by any church. Under this pre- 
tence, exempt from all other employment, and 
enriching themselves on the public, they last of all 
prove common incendiaries, and exalt their horns 
against the magistrate himself that maintains them, 
as the priest of Rome did soon after against his 
benefactor the emperor, and the presbyters of late 
in Scotland. Of which hireling crew, together 
with all the mischiefs, dissensions, troubles, wars 
merely of their kindling, Christendom might soon 
rid herself and be happy, if Christians would but 
know their own dignity, their liberty, their adop- 
tion, and, let it not be wondered if I say, their 
spiritual priesthood, whereby they have all equally 
access to any ministerial function, whenever called 
by their own abilities, and the Church, though 



HIRELINGS OUT OF THE CHURCH. 375 

they never came near commencement or univer- 
sity. But while Protestants, to avoid the due 
labor of understanding their own religion, are con- 
tent to lodge it in the breast, or rather in the books, 
of a clergyman, and to take it thence by scraps and 
mammocks, as he dispenses it in his Sunday's dole, 
they will be always learning and never knowing ; 
always infants ; always either his vassals, as lay 
Papists are to their priests ; or at odds with him, 
as reformed principles give them some light to be 
not wholly conformable ; whence infinite disturb- 
ances in the state, as they do, must needs follow. 
Thus much I had to say ; and, I suppose, what 
may be enough to them who are not avariciously 
bent otherwise, touching the likeliest means to re- 
move hirelings out of the Church ; than which 
nothing can more conduce to truth, to peace and 
all happiness, both in church and state. If I 
be not heard nor believed, the event will have 
borne me witness to have spoken truth ; and I in 
the mean while have borne my witness, not out of 
season, to the Church and to my country. 





FROM 

THE READY AND EASY WAY TO ESTABLISH 
A FREE COMMONWEALTH. 

FTER our liberty and religion thus pros- 
perously fought for, gained, and many 
years possessed, except in those un- 
happy interruptions which God hath 
removed ; now that nothing remains, but in all 
reason the certain hopes of a speedy and immediate 
settlement forever in a firm and free common- 
wealth, for this extolled and magnified nation, re- 
gardless both of honor won, or deliverances vouch- 
safed from Heaven, to fall back, or rather to creep 
back so poorly, as it seems the multitude would, to 
their once abjured and detested thraldom of king- 
ship, to be ourselves the slanderers of our own just 
and religious deeds, though done by some to covet- 
ous and ambitious ends, yet not therefore to be 
stained with their infamy, or they to asperse the 
integrity of others; and yet these, now by re- 
volting from the conscience of deeds well done, 
both in church and state, to throw away and for- 
sake, or rather to betray a just and noble cause for 



A FREE COMMONWEALTH. 377 

the mixture of bad men who have ill-managed and 
abused it, (which had our fathers done heretofore, 
and on the same pretence deserted true religion, 
what had long ere this become of our Gospel, and 
all Protestant reformation, so much intermixed 
with the avarice and ambition of some reformers ?) 
and by thus relapsing, to verify all the bitter pre- 
dictions of our triumphing enemies, who will now 
think they wisely discerned and justly censured 
both us and all our actions as rash, rebellious, 
hypocritical, and impious ; not only argues a 
strange, degenerate contagion suddenly spread 
among us, fitted and prepared for new slavery, 
but will render us a scorn and derision to all our 
neighbors. 

And what will they at best say of us, and of the 
whole English name, but scofhngly, as of that 
foolish builder mentioned by our Saviour, who 
began to build a tower, and was not able to finish 
it? Where is this goodly tower of a common- 
wealth, which the English boasted they would 
build to overshadow kings, and be another Rome 
in the West? The foundation indeed they lay 
gallantly, but fell into a worse confusion, not of 
tongues, but of factions, than those at the tower 
of Babel ; and have left no memorial of their work 
behind them remaining but in the common laugh- 
ter of Europe ! Which must needs redound the 
more to our shame, if we but look on our neiohbors 
the United Provinces, to us inferior in all outward 



378 THE READY AND EASY WAY TO 

advantages ; who, notwithstanding, in the midst of 
greater difficulties, courageously, wisely, constantly 
went through with the same work, and are settled 
in all the happy enjoyments of a potent and flourish- 
ing republic to this day. 

Besides this, if we return to kingship, and soon 
repent, (as undoubtedly we shall, when we begin 
to find the old encroachment coming on by little 
and little upon our consciences, which must neces- 
sarily proceed from king and bishop united in- 
separably in one interest,) we may be forced per- 
haps to fight over again all that we have fought, 
and spend over again all that we have spent, but 
are never like to attain thus far as we are now 
advanced to the recovery of our freedom, never to 
have it in possession as we now have it, never to 
be vouchsafed hereafter the like mercies and signal 
assistances from Heaven in our cause, if by our in- 
grateful backsliding we make these fruitless ; flying 
now to regal concessions from his divine condescen- 
sions and gracious answers to our once importuning 
prayers against the tyranny which we then groaned 
under; making vain and viler than dirt the blood of 
so many thousand faithful and valiant Englishmen, 
who left us in this liberty, bought with their lives ; 
losing by a strange after-game of folly all the 
battles we have won, together with all Scotland as 
to our conquest, hereby lost, which never any of 
our kings could conquer, all the treasure we have 
spent, not that corruptible treasure only, but that 



ESTABLISH A FREE COMMONWEALTH. 379 

far more precious of all our late miraculous deliver- 
ances ; treading back again with lost labor all our 
happy steps in the progress of reformation, and 
most pitifully depriving ourselves the instant fru- 
ition of that free government, which we have so 
dearly purchased, a free commonwealth, not only 
held by wisest men in all ages the noblest, the 
manliest, the equallest, the justest government, the 
most agreeable to all due liberty and proportioned 
equality, both human, civil, and Christian, most 
cherishing to virtue and true religion, but also (I 
may say it with greatest probability) plainly com- 
mended, or rather enjoined by our Saviour himself, 
to all Christians, not without remarkable disallow- 
ance, and the brand of Gentilism upon king- 
ship 

It may be well wondered that any nation, styling 
themselves free, can suffer any man to pretend 
hereditary right over them as their lord ; whenas, 
by acknowledging that right, they conclude them- 
selves his servants and his vassals, and so renounce 
their own freedom. Which how a people and their 
leaders especially can do, who have fought so glo- 
riously for liberty; how they can change their 
noble words and actions, heretofore so becoming 
the majesty of a free people, into the base necessity 
of court flatteries and prostrations, is not only 
strange and admirable, but lamentable to think on. 
That a nation should be so valorous and courageous 
to win their liberty in the field, and when they 



380 THE READY AND EASY WAY TO 

have won it, should be so heartless and unwise in 
their counsels, as not to know how to use it, value 
it, what to do with it, or with themselves; but 
after ten or twelve years' prosperous war and con- 
testation with tyranny, basely and besottedly to 
run their necks again into the yoke which they 
have broken, and prostrate all the fruits of their 
victory for naught at the feet of the vanquished, 
besides our loss of glory, and such an example as 
kings or tyrants never yet had the like to boast of, 
will be an ignominy if it befall us, that never yet 
befell any nation possessed of their liberty ; worthy 
indeed themselves, whatsoever they be, to be for- 
ever slaves, but that part of the nation which con- 
sents not with them, as I persuade me of a great 
number, far worthier than by their means to be 
brought into the same bondage. 

Considering these things so plain, so rational, 
I cannot but yet further admire on the other side, 
how any man, who hath the true principles of jus- 
tice and religion in him, can presume or take upon 
him to be a king and lord over his brethren, whom 
he cannot but know, whether as men or Christians, 
to be for the most part every way equal or superior 
to himself: how he can display with such vanity 
and ostentation his regal splendor, so supereminently 
above other mortal men ; or, being a Christian, can 
assume such extraordinary honor and worship to 
himself, while the kingdom of Christ, our common 
king and lord, is hid to this world, and such Gentilish 



ESTABLISH A FREE COMMONWEALTH. 381 

imitation forbid in express words by himself to all 
his disciples. All Protestants hold that Christ in 
his Church hath left no vicegerent of his power ; 
but himself, without deputy, is the only head there- 
of, governing it from heaven : how then can any 
Christian man derive his kingship from Christ, but 
with worse usurpation than the pope his headship 
over the Church, since Christ not only hath not 
left the least shadow of a command for any such 
vieegerenee from him in the state, as the pope pre- 
tends for Iris in the Church, but hath expressly 
declared that such regal dominion is from the Gen- 
tiles, not from him, and hath strictly charged us 
not to imitate them therein? 

To make the people fittest to choose, and the 
chosen fittest to govern, will be to mend our cor- 
rupt and faulty education, to teach the people 
faith, not without virtue, temperance, modesty, 
sobriety, parsimony, justice ; not to admire wealth 
or honor ; to hate turbulence and ambition ; to 
place every one his private welfare and happiness 
in the public peace, liberty, and safety 

The whole freedom of man consists either in 
spiritual or civil liberty. As for spiritual, who can 
be at rest, who can enjoy anything in this world 
with contentment, who hath not liberty to serve 
God, and to save his own soul, according to the 
best light which God hath planted in him to that 
purpose, by the reading of his revealed will, and 
the guidance of his Holy Spirit? That this is 



382 THE READY AND EASY WAY TO 

best pleasing to God, and that the whole Protestant 
Church allows no supreme judge or ruler in mat- 
ters of religion, but the Scriptures ; and these to 
be interpreted by the Scriptures themselves, which 
necessarily infers liberty of conscience, I have here- 
tofore proved at large in another treatise ; and 
might yet further, by the public declarations, con- 
fessions, and admonitions of whole churches and 
states, obvious in all histories since the Reforma- 
tion. 

This liberty of conscience, which above all other 
things ought to be to all men dearest and most 
precious, no government more inclinable not to 
favor only, but to protect, than a free common- 
wealth ; as being most magnanimous, most fearless, 
and confident of its own fair proceedings. Where- 
as kingship, though looking big, yet indeed most 
pusillanimous, full of fears, full of jealousies, startled 
at every umbrage, as it hath been observed of old 
to have ever suspected most and mistrusted them 
who were in most esteem for virtue and generosity 
of mind, so it is now known to have most in doubt 
and suspicion them who are most reputed to be 
religious. Queen Elizabeth, though herself ac- 
counted so good a Protestant, so moderate, so 
confident of her subjects' love, would never give 
way so much as to Presbyterian reformation in this 
land, though once and again besought, as Camden 
relates ; but imprisoned and persecuted the very 
proposers thereof, alleging it as her mind and 



ESTABLISH A FREE COMMONWEALTH. 383 

maxim unalterable, that such reformation would 
diminish regal authority. 

What liberty of conscience can we then expect 
of others, far worse principled from the cradle, 
trained up and governed by Popish and Spanish 
counsels, and on such depending hitherto for sub- 
sistence ? Especially what can this last Parlia- 
ment expect, who, having revived lately and pub- 
lished the covenant, have re-engaged themselves, 
never to readmit Episcopacy ? Which no son of 
Charles returning but will most certainly bring 
back with him, if he regard the last and strictest 
charge of his father, " to persevere in, not the 
doctrine only, but government of the Church of 
England, not to neglect the speedy and effectual 
suppressing of errors and schisms " ; among which 
he accounted Presbytery one of the chief. 

Or if, notwithstanding that charge of his father, 
he submit to the covenant, how will he keep faith 
to us, with disobedience to him ; or regard that 
faith given, which must be founded on the breach 
of that last and solemnest paternal charge, and the 
reluctance, I may say the antipathy, which is in 
all kings, against Presbyterian and Independent 
discipline ? For they hear the Gospel speaking 
much of liberty ; a word which monarchy and her 
bishops both fear and hate, but a free common- 
wealth both favors and promotes ; and not the 
word only, but the thing itself. But let our gov- 
ernors beware in time, lest their hard measure to 



384 THE READY AND EASY WAY TO 

liberty of conscience be found the rock whereon 
they shipwreck themselves, as others have now 
done before them in the course wherein God was 
directing their steerage to a free commonwealth ; 
and the abandoning of all those whom they call 
sectaries, for the detected falsehood and ambition 
of some, be a wilful rejection of their own chief 
strength and interest in the freedom of all Prot- 
estant religion, under what abusive name soever 
calumniated. 

The other part of our freedom consists in the 
civil rights and advancements of every person 
according to his merit : the enjoyment of those 
never more certain, and the access to these never 
more open, than in a free commonwealth. Both 
which, in my opinion, may be best and soonest 
obtained, if every county in the land were made a 
kind of subordinate commonalty or commonwealth, 
and one chief town or more, according as the shire 
is in circuit, made cities, if they be not so called 
already ; where the nobility and chief gentry, from 
a proportionable compass of territory annexed to 
each city, may build houses or palaces befitting 
their quality ; may bear part in the government, 
make their own judicial laws, or use those that 
are, and execute them by their own elected judica- 
tures and judges without appeal, in all things of 
civil government between man and man. So they 
shall have justice in their own hands, law executed 
fully and finally in their own counties and pre- 






ESTABLISH A FREE COMMONWEALTH. 385 

cincts, long wished and spoken of, but never yet 
obtained. They shall have none then to blame 
but themselves, if it be not well administered ; and 
fewer laws to expect or fear from the supreme 
authority ; or to those that shall be made, of any 
great concernment to public liberty, they may, 
without much trouble in these commonalties, or in 
more general assemblies called to their cities from 
the whole territory on such occasion, declare and 
publish their assent or dissent by deputies, within a 
time limited, sent to the grand council ; yet so as 
this their judgment declared shall submit to the 
greater number of other counties or commonalties, 
and not avail them to any exemption of themselves, 
or refusal of agreement with the rest, as it may in 
any of the United Provinces, being sovereign 
within itself, ofttimes to the great disadvantage 
of that union. 

In these employments they may, much better 
than they do now, exercise and fit themselves till 
their lot fall to be chosen into the grand council, 
according as their worth and merit shall be taken 
notice of by the people. As for controversies that 
shall happen between men of several counties, 
they may repair, as they do now, to the capital 
city, or any other more commodious, indifferent 
place, and equal judges. And this I find to have 
been practised in the old Athenian commonwealth, 
reputed the first and ancientest place of civility in 
all Greece ; that they had in their several cities a 

17 y 



386 THE READY AND EASY WAY TO 

peculiar, in Athens a common government ; and 
their right, as it befell them, to the administration 
of both. 

They should have here also schools and acade- 
mies at their own choice, wherein their children may 
be bred up in their own sight to all learning and 
noble education ; not in grammar only, but in all 
liberal arts and exercises. This would soon spread 
much more knowledge and civility, yea, religion, 
through all parts of the land, by communicating 
the natural heat of government and culture more 
distributively to all extreme parts, which now lie 
numb and neglected ; would soon make the whole 
nature more industrious, more ingenious at home, 
more potent, more honorable abroad. To this a 
free commonwealth will easily assent ; (nay, the 
Parliament hath had already some such thing in 
design ;) for of all governments a commonwealth 
aims most to make the people flourishing, virtu- 
ous, noble, and high-spirited. Monarchs will never 
permit ; whose aim is to make the people wealthy 
indeed perhaps, and well fleeced, for their own 
shearing, and the supply of regal prodigality ; but 
otherwise softest, basest, viciousest, servilest, easi- 
est to be kept under. And not only in fleece, but 
in mind also sheepishest ; and will have all the 
benches of judicature annexed to the throne, as a 
gift of royal grace, that we have justice done us ; 
whenas nothing can be more essential to the free- 
dom of a people, than to have the administration 



ESTABLISH A FREE COMMONWEALTH. 387 

of justice, and all public ornaments, in their own 
election, and within their own bounds, without 
long travelling or depending upon remote places 
to obtain their right, or any civil accomplishment ; 
so it be not supreme, but subordinate to the gen- 
eral power and union of the whole republic 

I have no more to say at present : few words 
will save us, well considered ; few and easy things, 
now seasonably done. But if the people be so af- 
fected as to prostitute religion and liberty to the 
vain and groundless apprehension, that nothing but 
kingship can restore trade, not remembering the 
frequent plagues and pestilences that then wasted 
this city, such as through God's mercy we never 
have felt since ; and that trade flourishes nowhere 
more than in the free commonwealths of Italy, 
Germany, and the Low Countries, before their 
eyes at this day ; yet if trade be grown so craving 
and importunate through the profuse living of 
tradesmen, that nothing can support it but the lux- 
urious expenses of a nation upon trifles or super- 
fluities ; so as if the people generally should betake 
themselves to frugality, it might prove a dangerous 
matter, lest tradesmen should mutiny for want of 
trading; and that therefore we must forego and 
set to sale religion, liberty, honor, safety, all con- 
cernments divine or human, to keep up trading : 
if, lastly, after all this light among us, the same 
reason shall pass for current, to put our necks 
again under kingship, as was made use of by the 



388 A FREE COMMONWEALTH. 

Jews to return back to Egypt, and to the worship 
of their idol queen, because they falsely imagined 
that they then lived in more plenty and prosper- 
ity ; our condition is not sound, but rotten, both in 
religion and all civil prudence ; and will bring us 
soon, the way we are marching, to those calamities, 
which attend always and unavoidably on luxury, 
all national judgments under foreign and domestic 
slavery : so far we shall be from mending our con- 
dition by monarchizing our government, whatever 
new conceit now possesses us. 





FROM 



THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN. 




Y this time, like one who had set out 
on his way by night, and travelled 
through a region of smooth or idle 
dreams, our history now arrives on the 
confines, where daylight and truth meet us with a 
clear dawn, representing to our view, though at a 

far distance, true colors and shapes 

Worthy deeds are not often destitute of worthy 
relaters ; as, by a certain fate, great acts and great 
eloquence have most commonly gone hand in hand, 
equalling and honoring each other in the same 
ages. It is true, that in obscurest times, by shal- 
low and unskilful writers, the indistinct noise of 
many battles and devastations of many kingdoms, 
overrun and lost, hath come to our ears. For 
what wonder, if in all ages, ambition and the love 
of rapine hath stirred up greedy and violent men 
to bold attempts in wasting and ruining wars, 
which to posterity have left the work of wild 
beasts and destroyers, rather than the deeds and 



390 FROM THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN. 

monuments of men and conquerors ? But he 
whose just and true valor uses the necessity of war 
and dominion not to destroy, but to prevent de- 
struction, to bring in liberty against tyrants, law 
and civility among barbarous nations, knowing that 
when he conquers all things else, he cannot con- 
quer Time or Detraction, wisely conscious of this 
his want, as well as of his worth not to be forgot- 
ten or concealed, honors and hath recourse to the 
aid of eloquence, his friendliest and best supply ; 
by whose immortal record his noble deeds, which 
'else were transitory, become fixed and durable 
against the force of years and generations, he fails 
not to continue through all posterity, over Envy, 
Death, and Time also victorious. Therefore, when 
the esteem of science and liberal study waxes low 
in the commonwealth, we may presume that also 
there all civil virtue and worthy action is grown as 
low to a decline : and then eloquence as it were 
consorted in the same destiny, with the decrease 
and fall of virtue, corrupts also and fades ; at 
least resigns her office of relating to illiterate and 
frivolous historians, such as the persons themselves 
both deserve, and are best pleased with ; whilst 
they want either the understanding to choose bet- 
ter, or the innocence to dare invite the examining 
and searching style of an intelligent and faithful 
writer to the survey of their unsound exploits, bet- 
ter befriended by obscurity than fame 

Thus expired this great empire of the Romans ; 



FROM THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN. 391 

first in Britain, soon after in Italy itself; having 
borne chief sway in this island, though never thor- 
oughly subdued, or all at once in subjection, if we 
reckon from the coming in of Julius, to the taking 
of Rome by Alaric, in which year Honorius wrote 
those letters of discharge into Britain, the space of 
four hundred and sixty-two years. And with the 
empire fell also what before in this Western world 
was chiefly Roman : learning, valor, eloquence, 
history, civility, and even language itself, all these 
together, as it were, with equal peace, diminishing 
and decaying. Henceforth we are to steer by an- 
other sort of authors ; near enough to the things 
they write, as in their own country, if that would 
serve ; in time not much belated, some of equal 
age ; in expression barbarous, and to say how ju- 
dicious, I suspend a while : this we must expect ; 
in civil matters to find them dubious relaters, and 
still to the best advantage of what they term the 
Holy Church, meaning indeed themselves : in most 
other matters of religion, blind, astonished, and 
struck with superstition as with a planet ; in one 
word, monks. Yet these guides, where can be had 
no better, must be followed ; in gross, it may be 
true enough ; in circumstances each man, as his 
judgment gives him, may reserve his faith, or 

bestow it 

Of these who swayed most in the late troubles, 
a few words as to this point may suffice. They 
had arms, leaders, and successes to their wish, but 



392 FROM THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN. 

to make use of so great an advantage was not their 
skill. 

To other causes therefore, and not to the want 
of force, or warlike manhood in the Britons, both 
those, and these lately, we must impute the ill 
husbanding of those fair opportunities, which might 
seem to have put liberty, so long desired, like a 
bridle into their hands. Of which other causes, 
equally belonging to ruler, priest, and people, above 
hath been related: which, as they brought those 
ancient natives to misery and ruin, by liberty, 
which rightly used, might have made them happy ; 
so brought they these of late, after many labors, 
much bloodshed, and vast expense, to ridiculous 
frustration, in whom the like defects, the like mis- 
carriages notoriously appeared, with vices not less 
hateful or inexcusable. 

For a Parliament being called, to address many 
things, as it was thought, the people with great 
courage, and expectation to be eased of what dis- 
contented them, chose their behoof in Parliament, 
such as they thought best affected to the public 
good, and some indeed men of wisdom and integ- 
rity ; the rest, (to be sure the greater part,) whom 
wealth or ample possessions, or bold and active 
ambition (rather than merit) had commended to 
the same place. 

But when once the superficial zeal and pop- 
ular fumes that acted their New magistracy were 
cooled, and spent in them, straight every one be- 



FROM THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN. 393 

took himself (setting the commonwealth behind, 
his private ends before) to do as his own profit or 
ambition led him. Then was justice delayed, and 
soon after denied : spite and favor determined 
all ; hence faction, thence treachery, both at home 
and in the field: everywhere wrong and op- 
pression: foul and horrid deeds committed daily, 
or maintained in secret, or in open. Some who 
had been called from shops and warehouses, without 
other merit, to sit in supreme councils and com- 
mittees, (as their breeding was,) fell to huckster 
the commonwealth. Others did thereafter as men 
could soothe and humor them best; so he who 
would give most, or, under cover of hypocritical 
zeal, insinuate basest, enjoyed unworthily the re- 
wards of learning and fidelity ; or escaped the pun- 
ishment of his crimes and misdeeds. Their votes 
and ordinances, which men looked should have 
contained the repealing of bad laws, and the imme- 
diate constitution of better, resounded with noth- 
ing else but new impositions, taxes, excises ; yearly, 
monthly, weekly. Not to reckon the offices, gifts, 
and preferments bestowed and shared among them- 
selves: they in the mean while, who were ever 
faithfullest to this cause, and freely aided them in 
person, or with their substance, when they durst 
not compel either, slighted and bereaved after of 
their just debts by greedy sequestrations, were 
tossed up and down after miserable attendance 
from one committee to another with petitions in 
17* 



394 FROM THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN. 

their hands, yet either missed the obtaining of their 
suit, or though it were at length granted, (mere 
shame and reason ofttimes extorting from them at 
least a show of justice,) yet by their sequestrators 
and sub-committees abroad, men for the most part 
of insatiable hands, and noted disloyalty, those 
orders were commonly disobeyed : which for cer- 
tain durst not have been, without secret compli- 
ance, if not compact, with some superiors able to 
bear them out. Thus were their friends confiscate 
with their enemies, while they forfeited their debt- 
ors to the state, as they called it, but indeed to the 
ravening seizure of innumerable thieves in office : 
yet withal no less burdened in all extraordinary 
assessments and oppressions, than those whom they 
took to be disaffected : nor were we happier cred- 
itors to what we called the state, than to them who 
were sequestered as the state's enemies. 

For that faith which ought to have been kept as 
sacred and inviolable as anything holy, " the Pub- 
lic Faith," after infinite sums received, and all the 
wealth of the Church not better employed, but 
swallowed up into a private gulf, was not erelong 
ashamed to confess bankrupt. And now beside the 
sweetness of bribery, and other gain, with the love 
of rule, their own guiltiness and the dreaded name 
of Just Account, which the people had long called 
for, discovered plainly that there were of their own 
number, who secretly contrived and fomented those 
troubles and combustions in the land, which openly 



FROM THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN. 395 

they sat to remedy ; and would continually find 
such work, as should keep them from being ever 
brought to that Terrible Stand of laying down 
their authority for lack of new business, or not 
drawing it out to any length of time, though upon 
the ruin of a whole nation. 

And if the state were in this plight, religion was 
not in much better; to reform which, a certain 
number of divines were called, neither chosen by 
any rule or custom ecclesiastical, nor eminent for 
either piety or knowledge above others left out; 
only as each member of Parliament in his private 
fancy thought fit, so elected one by one. The 
most part of them were such as had preached and 
cried down, with great show of zeal, the avarice 
and pluralities of bishops and prelates ; that one cure 
of souls was a full employment for one spiritual pas- 
tor, how able soever, if not a charge rather above 
human strength. Yet these conscientious men (ere 
any part of the work done for which they came 
together, and that on the public salary) wanted not 
boldness, to the ignominy and scandal of their 
pastorlike profession, and especially of their boasted 
reformation, to seize into their hands, or not unwill- 
ingly to accept (besides one, sometimes two or 
more of the best livings) collegiate masterships in 
the universities, rich lectures in the city, setting 
sail to all winds that might blow gain into their 
covetous bosoms ; by which means these great re- 
bukers of non-residence, among so many distant 



396 FROM THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN. 

cures, were not ashamed to be seen so quickly 
pluralists and non-residents themselves, to a fearful 
condemnation, doubtless by their own mouths. 
And yet the main doctrine for which they took 
such pay, and insisted upon with more vehemence 
than Gospel, was but to tell us in effect, that their 
doctrine was worth nothing, and the spiritual power 
of their ministry less available than bodily com- 
pulsion ; persuading the magistrate to use it, as a 
stronger means to subdue and bring in conscience, 
than evangelical persuasion : distrusting the virtue 
of their own spiritual weapons, which were given 
them, if they be rightly called, with full warrant 
of sufficiency to pull down all thoughts and imagina- 
tions that exalt themselves against God. But while 
they taught compulsion without convincement, 
which not long before they complained of as 
executed unchristianly, against themselves; these 
intents are clear to have been no better than anti- 
christian ; setting up a spiritual tyranny by a sec- 
ular power, to the advancing of their own authority 
above the magistrate, whom they would have made 
their executioner, to punish Church-delinquencies, 
whereof civil laws have no cognizance. 

And well did their disciples manifest themselves 
to be no better principled than their teachers, 
trusted with committeeships and other gainful offi- 
ces, upon their commendations for zealous, (and as 
they sticked not to term them,) godly men ; but 
executing their places like children of the Devil, 



FROM THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN. 397 

unfaithfully, unjustly, unmercifully, and, where 
not corruptly, stupidly. So that between them the 
teachers, and these the disciples, there hath not 
been a more ignominious and mortal wound to 
faith, to piety, to the work of reformation, nor 
more cause of blaspheming given to the enemies 
of God and truth, since the first preaching of 
reformation. 

The people therefore looking one while on the 
statists, whom they beheld without constancy or 
firmness laboring doubtfully beneath the weight 
of their own too high undertakings, busiest in petty 
things, trifling in the main, deluded and quite 
alienated, expressed divers ways their disaffection ; 
some despising whom before they honored, some 
deserting, some inveighing, some conspiring against 
them. Then looking on the churchmen, whom 
they saw under subtle hypocrisy to have preached 
their own follies, most of them not the Gospel, 
timeservers, covetous, illiterate persecutors, not 
lovers of the truth, like in most things whereof 
they accused their predecessors ; looking on all 
this, the people which had been kept warm awhile 
with counterfeit zeal of their pulpits, after a 
false heat, became more cold and obdurate than 
before, some turning to lewdness, some to flat 
atheism, put beside their old religion, and foully 
scandalized in what they expected should be 
new. 

Thus they who of late were extolled as our 



398 FROM THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN. 

greatest deliverers, and had the people wholly at 
their devotion, by so discharging their trust as we 
see, did not only weaken and unfit themselves to 
be dispensers of what liberty they pretended, but 
unfitted also the people, now grown worse and 
more disordinate, to receive or to digest any liberty 
at all. For stories teach us, that liberty sought 
out of season, in a corrupt and degenerate age, 
brought Rome itself to a farther slavery : for lib- 
erty hath a sharp and double edge, fit only to be 
handled by just and virtuous men ; to bad and 
dissolute, it becomes a mischief unwieldy in their 
own hands : neither is it completely given, but by 
them who have the happy skill to know what is 
grievance and unjust to a people, and how to re- 
move it wisely ; what good laws are wanting, and 
how to frame them substantially, that good men 
may enjoy the freedom whch they merit, and the 
bad the curb which they need. But to do this, 
and to know these exquisite proportions, the heroic 
wisdom which is required, surmounted far the 
principles of these narrow politicians : what won- 
der then if they sunk as these unfortunate Britons 
before them, entangled and oppressed with things 
too hard and generous above their strain and tem- 
per ? For Britain, to speak a truth not often 
spoken, as it is a land fruitful enough of men stout 
and courageous in war, so it is naturally not over- 
fertile of men able to govern justly and prudently 
in peace, trusting only in their mother- wit; who 



FROM THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN. 399 

consider not justly, that civility, prudence, love of 
the public good, more than of money or vain honor, 
are to this soil in a manner outlandish ; grow not 
here, but in minds well implanted with solid and 
elaborate breeding, too impolitic else and rude, if 
not headstrong and intractable to the industry and 
virtue either of executing or understanding true 
civil government. Valiant indeed, and prosperous 
to win a field ; but to know the end and reason of 
winning unjudicious and unwise : in good or bad 
success alike unteachable. For the sun, which 
we want, ripens wits as well as fruits ; and as wine 
and oil are imported to us from abroad, so must 
ripe understanding, and many civil virtues, be im- 
ported into our minds from foreign writings, and 
examples of best ages : we shall else miscarry still, 
and come short in the attempts of any great enter- 
prise. Hence did their victories prove as fruitless 
as their losses dangerous ; and left them still con- 
quering under the same grievances that men suffer 
conquered ; which was indeed unlikely to go other- 
wise, unless men more than vulgar bred up, as few 
of them were, in the knowledge of ancient and 
illustrious deeds, invincible against many and vain 
titles, impartial to friendships and relations, had 
conducted their affairs: but then from the chap- 
man to the retailer, many whose ignorance was 
more audacious than the rest, were admitted, with 
all their sordid rudiments, to bear no mean sway 
among them, both in church and state. 



400 FROM THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN. 

From the confluence of all their errors, mischiefs, 
and misdemeanors, what in the eyes of men could 
be expected, but what befell those ancient inhabi- 
tants, whom they so much resembled, confusion in 
the end ? 







FROM THE TREATISE 

OF TRUE RELIGION, HERESY, SCHISM, 
TOLERATION. 




|jj) RUE religion is the true worship and 
service of God, learned and believed 
from the word of God only. No man 
or angel can know how God would be 
worshipped and served unless God reveal it: he 
hath revealed and taught it us in the Holy Scrip- 
tures by inspired ministers, and in the Gospel by 
his own Son and his Apostles, with strictest com- 
mand, to reject all other traditions or additions 

whatsoever 

With good and religious reason, therefore, all 
Protestant churches with one consent, and par- 
ticularly the Church of England in her thirty-nine 
articles, article' 6th, 19th, 20th, 21st, and else- 
where, maintain these two points, as the main 
principles of true religion, — that the rule of true 
religion is the word of God only ; and that their 
faith ought not to be an implicit faith, that is, to 
believe, though as the Church believes, against or 
without express authority of Scripture. And if 



402 OF TRUE RELIGION, 

all Protestants, as universally as they hold these 
two principles, so attentively and religiously would 
observe them, they would avoid and cut off many 
debates and contentions, schisms and persecutions, 
which too oft have been among them, and more 
firmly unite against the common adversary. For 
hence it directly follows, that no true Protestant 
can persecute, or not tolerate, his fellow-Protestant, 
though dissenting from him in some opinions, but 
he must flatly deny and renounce these two his 
-own main principles, whereon true religion is 
founded ; while he compels his brother from that 
which he believes as the manifest word of God, to 
an implicit faith (which he himself condemns) to 
the endangering of his brother's soul, whether by 
rash belief, or outward conformity : for " whatso- 
ever is not of faith is sin." .... 

Let us now inquire whether Popery be tolerable 
<or no. Popery is a double thing to deal with, and 
claims a twofold power, ecclesiastical and political, 
both usurped, and the one supporting the other. 

But, ecclesiastical is ever pretended to political. 
The pope by this mixed faculty pretends right, to 
kingdoms and states, and especially to this of Eng- 
land, thrones and unthrones kings, and absolves 
the people from their obedience to them ; some- 
times interdicts to whole nations the public worship 
of God, shutting up their churches : and was wont 
to drain away greatest part of the wealth of this 
then miserable land, as part of his patrimony, to 



HERESY, SCHISM, TOLERATION. 403 

maintain the pride and luxury of his court and 
prelates ; and now, since, through the infinite 
mercy and favor of God, we have shaken off his 
Babylonish yoke, hath not ceased by his spies and 
agents, bulls and emissaries, once to destroy both 
king and Parliament ; perpetually to seduce, cor- 
rupt, and pervert as many as they can of the 
people. Whether therefore it be fit or reasonable 
to tolerate men thus principled in religion towards 
the state, I submit it to the consideration of all 
magistrates, who are best able to provide for their 
own and the public safety. As for tolerating the 
exercise of their religion, supposing their state- 
activities not to be dangerous, I answer, that tol- 
eration is either public or private ; and the exercise 
of their religion, as far as it is idolatrous, can be 
tolerated neither way : not publicly, without griev- 
ous and unsufferable scandal given to all consci- 
entious beholders ; not privately, without great 
offence to God, declared against all kind of idolatry, 
though secret. Ezek. viii. 7, 8. 

Having shown thus, that Popery, as being idol- 
atrous, is not to be tolerated either in public or 
private ; it must be now thought how to remove it, 
and hinder the growth thereof, I mean in our 
natives, and not foreigners, privileged by the law 
of nations. Are we to punish them by corporal 
punishment, or fines in their estates, upon account 
of their religion ? I suppose it stands not with the 



404 OF TRUE RELIGION, 

clemency of the Gospel, more than what apper- 
tains to the security of the state : but first we must 
remove their idolatry, and all the furniture thereof, 
whether idols or the mass wherein they adore their 
God under bread and wine : for the commandment 
forbids to adore, not only "any graven image, 
but the likeness of anything in heaven above, or 
in the earth beneath, or in the water under the 
earth ; thou shalt not bow down to them nor 
worship them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous 
God." If they say, that by removing their idols 
we violate their consciences, we have no warrant 
to regard conscience which is not grounded on 
Scripture : and they themselves confess, in their 
late defences, that they hold not their images 
necessary to salvation, but only as they are en- 
joined them by tradition 

St. Paul judged, that not only to tolerate, but 
to examine and prove all things, was no danger to 
our holding fast that which is good. How shall 
we prove all things, which includes all opinions at 
least founded on Scripture, unless we not only tol- 
erate them, but patiently hear them, and seriously 
read them? If he who thinks himself in the 
truth professes to have learnt it, not by implicit 
faith, but by attentive study of the Scriptures, and 
full persuasion of heart, with what equity can he 
refuse to hear or read him who demonstrates to 
have gained his knowledge by the same way ? Is 
it a fair course to assert truth, by arrogating to 



HERESY, SCHISM, TOLERATION. 405 

himself the only freedom of speech, and stopping 
the mouths of others equally gifted ? This is the 
direct way to bring in that Papistical implicit faith, 
which we all disclaim. They pretend it would 
unsettle the weaker sort ; the same groundless fear 
is pretended by the Romish clergy. At least, then, 
let them have leave to write in Latin, which the 
common people understand not; that what they 
hold may be discussed among the learned only. 
We suffer the idolatrous books of Papists, without 
this fear, to be sold and read as common as our 
own : why not much rather of Anabaptists, Arians, 
Arminians, and Socinians ? There is no learned 
man but will confess he hath much profited by 
reading controversies, his senses awakened, his 
judgment sharpened, and the truth which he holds 
more firmly established. If then it be profitable 
for him to read, why should it not at least be tol- 
erable and free for his adversary to write ? In 
logic they teach, that contraries laid together more 
evidently appear : it follows, then, that all contro- 
versy being permitted, falsehood" will appear more 
false, and truth the more true ; which must needs 
conduce much, not only to the confounding of 
Popery, but to the general confirmation of unim- 
plicit truth. 




FROM THE 



FAMILIAR LETTERS. 




To Benedetto Btjonmattai, a Florentine. 

AM glad to hear, my dear Buonmattai, 
that you are preparing new institutes 
of your native language, and have just 
brought the work to a conclusion. The 
way to fame which you have chosen is the same as 
that which some persons of the first genius have 
embraced ; and your fellow-citizens seem ardently 
to expect that you will either illustrate or amplify, 
or at least polish and methodize, the labors of your 
predecessors. By such a work, you will lay your 
countrymen under no common obligation, which 
they will be ungrateful if they do not acknowledge. 
For I hold him to deserve the highest praise who 
fixes the principles and forms the manners of a 
state, and makes the wisdom of his administration 
conspicuous both at home and abroad. But I as- 
sign the second place to him, who endeavors by 
precepts and by rules to perpetuate that style and 
idiom of speech and composition which have flour- 
ished in the purest periods of the language, and 



FROM THE FAMILIAR LETTERS. 407 

who, as it were, throws up such a trench around 
it, that people may be prevented from going be- 
yond the boundary almost by the terrors of a 
Romulean prohibition. If we compare the benefits 
which each of these confer, we shall find that the 
former alone can render the intercourse of the cit- 
izens just and conscientious, but that the latter 
gives that gentility, that elegance, that refirtement 
which are next to be desired. The one inspires 
lofty courage and intrepid ardor against the inva- 
sion of an enemy ; the other exerts himself to an- 
nihilate that barbarism which commits more exten- 
sive ravages on the minds of men, which is the 
intestine enemy of genius and literature, by the 
taste which he inspires, and the good authors 
which he causes to be read. Nor do I think it a 
matter of little moment whether the language of 
a people be vitiated or refined, whether the popu- 
lar idiom be erroneous or correct. This considera- 
tion was more than once found salutary at Athens. 
It is the opinion of Plato, that changes in the 
dress and habits of the citizens portend great com- 
motions and changes in the state ; and I am in- 
clined to believe, that when the language i n com- 
mon use in any country becomes irregular and 
depraved, it is followed by their ruin or their deg- 
radation. For what do terms used without skill 
or meaning, which are at once corrupt and misap- 
plied, denote, but a people listless, supine, and ripe 
for servitude ? On the contrary, we have never 



408 FROM THE FAMILIAR LETTERS. 

heard of any people or state which has not flour- 
ished in some degree of prosperity as long as their 
language has retained its elegance and its purity. 
Hence, my Benedetto, you may be induced to 
proceed in executing a work so useful to your coun- 
try, and may clearly see what an honorable and 
permanent claim you will have to the approbation 
and the gratitude of your fellow-citizens. Thus 
much I have said, not to make you acquainted 
with that of which you were ignorant, but because 
I was persuaded that you are more intent on serv- 
ing your country than in considering the just title 
which you have to its remuneration. I will now 
mention the favorable opportunity which you have, 
if you wish to embrace it, of obliging foreigners, 
among whom there is no one at all conspicuous 
for genius or for elegance who does not make the 
Tuscan language his delight, and indeed consider 
it as an essential part of education, particularly if 
he be only slightly tinctured with the literature of 
Greece or of Rome. I, who certainly have not 
merely wetted the tip of my lips in the stream of 
those languages, but, in proportion to my years, 
have swallowed the most copious drafts, can yet 
sometimes retire with avidity and delight to feast 
on Dante, Petrarch, and many others ; nor has 
Athens itself been able to confine me to the trans- 
parent wave of its Ilissus, nor ancient Rome to the 
banks of its Tiber, so as to prevent my visiting with 
delight the stream of the Arno, and the hills of 



FROM THE FAMILIAR LETTERS. 409 

Fsesolse. A stranger from the shores of the far- 
thest ocean, I have now spent some days among 
you, and am become quite enamored of your nation. 
Consider whether there were sufficient reason for 
my preference, that you may more readily remem- 
ber what I so earnestly importune ; that you 
would, for the sake of foreigners, add something 
to the grammar which you have begun, and in- 
deed almost finished, concerning the right pro- 
nunciation of the language, and made as easy as 
the nature of the subject will admit. The other 
critics in your language seem to this day to have 
had no other design than to satisfy their own 
countrymen, without taking any concern about 
anybody else. Though I think that they would 
have provided better for their own reputation and 
for the glory of the Italian language, if they had 
delivered their precepts in such a manner as if it 
was for the interest of all men to learn their lan- 
guage. But, for all them, we might think that 
you Italians wished to confine your wisdom within 
the pomaerium of the Alps. This praise, therefore, 
which no one has anticipated, will be entirely 
yours, immaculate and pure ; nor will it be less so 
if you will be at the pains to point out who may 
justly claim the second rank of fame after the re- 
nowned chiefs of the Florentine literature ; who 
excels in the dignity of tragedy, or the festivity 
and elegance of comedy ; who has shown acute- 
ness of remark or depth of reflection in his epistles 

18 



410 FROM THE FAMILIAR LETTERS. 

or dialogues ; to whom belongs the grandeur of the 
historic style. Thus it will be easy for the student 
to choose the best writers in every department ; 
and if he wishes to extend his researches further, 
he will know which way to take. Among the an- 
cients, you will in this respect find Cicero and Fa- 
bius deserving of your imitation ; but I know not 
one of your own countrymen who does. But 
though I think, as often as I have mentioned this 
subject, that your courtesy and benignity have in- 
duced you to comply with my request, I am un- 
willing that those qualities should deprive you of 
the homage of a more polished and elaborate en- 
treaty. For since your singular modesty is so apt 
to depreciate your own performances ; the dignity 
of the subject, and my respect for you, will not suf- 
fer me to rate them below their worth. And it is 
certainly just that he who shows the greatest facili- 
ty in complying with a request, should not receive 
the less honor on account of his compliance. On 
this occasion I have employed the Latin rather than 
your own language, that I might in Latin confess 
my imperfect acquaintance with that language 
which I wish you by your precepts to embellish and 
adorn. And I hoped that if I invoked the venera- 
ble Latin mother, hoary with years, and crowned 
with the respect of ages, to plead the cause of her 
daughter, I should give to my request a force 
and authority which nothing could resist. Adieu. 
Florence, Sept. 10, 1638. 



FROM THE FAMILIAR LETTERS. 411 

To Leonard Philaras, the Athenian. 

I HAVE always been devotedly attached to the 
literature of Greece, and particularly to that of 
your Athens ; and have never ceased to cherish the 
persuasion that that city would one day make me 
ample recompense for the warmth of my regard. 
The ancient genius of your renowned country has 
favored the completion of my prophecy in present- 
ing me with your friendship and esteem. Though 
I was known to you only by my writings, and we 
were removed to such a distance from each other, 
you most courteously addressed me by letter ; and 
when you unexpectedly came to London, and saw 
me who could no longer see, my affliction, which 
causes none to regard me with greater admiration, 
and perhaps many even with feelings of contempt, 
excited your tenderest sympathy and concern. 
You would not suffer me to abandon the hope of 
recovering my sight ; and informed me that you had 
an intimate friend at Paris, Doctor Thevenot, who 
was particularly celebrated in disorders of the eyes, 
whom you would consult about mine, if I would 
enable you to lay before him the causes and symp- 
toms of the complaint. I will do what you desire, 
lest I should seem to reject that aid which perhaps 
may be offered me by Heaven. It is now, I think, 
about ten years since I perceived my vision to 
crow weak and dull ; and at the same time I was 
troubled with pain in my kidneys and bowels, ac- 



412 FROM THE FAMILIAR LETTERS. 

companied with flatulency. In the morning, if I 
began to read, as was my custom, my eyes instant- 
ly ached intensely, but were refreshed after a little 
corporeal exercise. The candle which I looked 
at, seemed as it were encircled with a rainbow. 
Not long after the sight in the left part of the left 
eye (which I lost some years before the other) be- 
came quite obscured ; and prevented me from dis- 
cerning any object on that side. The sight in my 
other eye has now been gradually and sensibly 
vanishing away for about three years ; some 
months before it had entirely perished, though I 
stood motionless, everything which I looked at, 
seemed in motion to and fro. A stiff cloudy vapor 
seemed to have settled on my forehead and tem- 
ples, which usually occasions a sort of somnolent 
pressure upon my eyes, and particularly from din- 
ner till the evening. So that I often recollect 
what is said of the poet Phineas in the Argonau- 
tics : — 

" A stupor deep his cloudy temples bound, 
And when he walked he seemed as whirling round, 
Or in a feeble trance he speechless lay." 

I ought not to omit that while I had any sight 
left, as soon as I lay down on my bed and turned 
on either side, a flood of light used to gush from 
my closed eyelids. Then, as my sight became 
daily more impaired, the colors became more faint, 
and were emitted with a certain inward crackling 
sound ; but at present, every species of illumina- 



FROM THE FAMILIAR LETTERS. 413 

tion being, as it were, extinguished, there is dif- 
fused around me nothing but darkness, or darkness 
mingled and streaked with an ashy brown. Yet 
the darkness in which I am perpetually immersed, 
seems always, both by night and day, to ap- 
proach nearer to white than black ; and when 
the eye is rolling in its socket, it admits a little 
particle of light, as through a chink. And though 
your physician may kindle a small ray of hope, 
yet I make up my mind to the malady as quite in- 
curable ; and I often reflect, that as the wise man 
admonishes, days of darkness are destined to each 
of us, the darkness which I experience, less oppres- 
sive than that of the tomb, is, owing to the singu- 
lar goodness of the Deity, passed amid the pur- 
suits of literature and the cheering salutations of 
friendship. But if, as is written, " man shall not 
live by bread alone, but by every word that pro- 
ceedeth from the mouth of God," why may not 
any one acquiesce in the privation of his sight, when 
God has so amply furnished his mind and his con- 
science with eyes ? While he so tenderly pro- 
vides for me, while he so graciously leads me by 
the hand, and conducts me on the way, I will, 
since it is his pleasure, rather rejoice than repine 
at being blind. And, my dear Philaras, whatever 
may be the event, I wish you adieu with no less 
courage and composure than if I had the eyes of a 
lynx. 

Westminster, September 28, 1654. 



414 FROM THE FAMILIAR LETTERS. 

To the Illustrious Lord Henry de Bras. 

1SEE, my Lord, that you, unlike most of our 
modern youth who pass through foreign coun- 
tries, wisely travel, like the ancient philosophers, for 
the sake of completing your juvenile studies, and 
of picking up knowledge wherever it may be found. 
Though as often as I consider the excellence of 
what you write, you appear to me to have gone 
among foreigners, not so much for the sake of pro- 
curing erudition yourself, as of imparting it to 
others, and rather to exchange than to purchase a 
stock of literature. I wish it were as easy for me 
in every way to promote the increase of your 
knowledge and the improvement of your intellect, 
as it is pleasing and flattering to me to have that 
assistance requested by talents and genius like 
yours. I have never attempted, and I should 
never dare to attempt, to solve those difficulties as 
you request, which seem to have cast a cloud over 
the writers of history for so many ages. Of 
Sallust I will speak, as you desire, without any 
hesitation or reserve. I prefer him to any of the 
Latin historians ; which was also the general opin- 
ion of the ancients. Your favorite Tacitus deserves 
his meed of praise ; but his highest praise, in my 
opinion, consists in his having imitated Sallust with 
all his might. By my conversation with you on 
this subject I seem, as far as I can guess from your 
letter, to have inspired you with sentiments very 



FROM THE FAMILIAR LETTERS. 415 

similar to my own, concerning that most energetic 
and animated writer. As he in the beginning of 
his Catilinarian war asserted that there was the 
greatest difficulty in historical composition, because 
the style should correspond with the nature of the 
narrative, you ask me how a writer of history may 
best attain that excellence. My opinion is that he 
who would describe actions and events in a way 
suited to their dignity and importance, ought to 
write with a mind endued with a spirit, and en- 
larged by an experience, as extensive as the actors 
in the scene, that he may have a capacity properly 
to comprehend and to estimate the most momentous 
affairs, and to relate them, when comprehended, 
with energy and distinctness, with purity and per- 
spicuity of diction. The decorations of style I do 
not greatly heed : for I require an historian, and 
not a rhetorician. I do not want frequent inter- 
spersions of sentiment, or prolix dissertations on 
transactions, which interrupt the series of events, 
and cause the historian to intrench on the office of 
the politician, who, if, in explaining counsels and 
explaining facts, he follows truth rather than his 
own partialities and conjectures, excites the disgust 
or the aversion of his party. I will add a remark of 
Sallust, and which was one of the excellences he 
himself commends in Cato, that he should be able 
to say much in a few words ; a perfection which I 
think no one can attain without the most discrim- 
inating judgment and a peculiar degree of modera- 



416 FROM THE FAMILIAR LETTERS. 

tion. There axe many in whom you have not to 
regret either elegance of diction or copiousness of 
narrative, who have yet united copiousness with 
brevity. And among these Sallust is, in my opin- 
ion, the chief of the Latin writers. Such are the 
virtues which I think every historian ought to pos- 
sess who would proportion his style to the facts 
which he records. But why do I mention this to 
you, when such is your genius that you need not 
my advice, and when such is your proficiency, that 
if it goes on increasing you will soon not be able 
to consult any one more learned than yourself? 
To the increase of that proficiency, though no 
exhortations can be necessary to stimulate your 
exertions, yet, that I may not seem entirely to 
frustrate your expectations, I will beseech you, 
with all my affection, all my authority, and all my 
zeal, to let nothing relax your diligence, or chill 
the ardor of your pursuit. Adieu ! and may you 
ever successfully labor in the path of wisdom and 
of virtue ! 

Westminster, July 15, 1657. 





FROM THE 



LETTERS OF STATE 




To the most Illustrious and Noble Senators, Scultets, Lan- 
dam, and Senators of the Evangelic Cantons of Switz- 
erland, Zurick, Bern, Glaris, Bale, Schaff- 
husen, Appenzel, also the Confederates of the same 
Religion in the country of the Grisons, of Geneva, St. 
Gall, Malhausen, and Bienne, our dearest friends. 

OUR letters, most illustrious lords and 
dearest confederates, dated December 
twenty-four, full of civility, good will, 
and singular affection towards us and 
our republic, and what ought always to be great- 
er and more sacred to us, breathing fraternal 
and truly Christian charity, we have received. 
And in the first place, we return thanks to 
Almighty God, who has raised and established 
both you and so many noble cities, not so much 
intrenched and fortified with those enclosures of 
mountains, as with your innate fortitude, piety, 
most prudent and just administration of govern- 
ment, and the faith of mutual confederacies, to be 
a firm and inaccessible shelter for all the truly 

18* A A 



418 FROM THE LETTERS OF STATE. 

orthodox. Now then that you, who over all 
Europe were the first of mortals, who, after del- 
uges of barbarous tyrants from the north, heaven 
prospering your valor, recovered your liberty, and, 
being obtained, for so many years have preserved 
it untainted, with no less prudence and modera- 
/tion ; that you should have such noble sentiments 
of our liberty recovered; that you, such sincere 
worshippers of the Gospel, should be so constantly 
persuaded of our love and affection for the ortho- 
dox faith, is that which is most acceptable and 
welcome to us. But as to your exhorting us to 
peace, with a pious and affectionate intent, as we 
are fully assured, certainly such an admonition 
ought to be of great weight with us, as well in 
respect of the thing itself which you persuade, and 
which of all things is chiefly to be desired, as also 
for the great authority, which is to be allowed your 
lordships above others in this particular, who in 
the midst of loud tumultuous wars on every side 
enjoy the sweets of peace both at home and abroad, 
and have approved yourselves the best example to 
all others of embracing and improving peace ; and 
lastly, for that you persuade us to the very thing 
which we ourselves of our own accords, and that 
more than once, consulting as well our own as the 
interest of the whole evangelical communion, have 
begged by ambassadors, and other public ministers, 
namely, friendship and a most strict league with 
the United Provinces. But how they treated our 



FROM THE LETTERS OF STATE. 419 

ambassadors sent to them to negotiate, not a bare 
peace, but a brotherly amity and most strict league ; 
what provocations to war they afterwards gave us ; 
how they fell upon us in our own roads, in the 
midst of their ambassadors' negotiations for peace 
and allegiance, little dreaming any such violence ; 
you will abundantly understand by our declaration 
set forth upon this subject, and sent you together 
with these our letters. But as for our parts, we 
are wholly intent upon this, by God's assistance, 
though prosperous hitherto, so to carry ourselves, 
that we may neither attribute anything to our own 
strength or forces, but all things to God alone, nor 
be insolently puffed up with our success ; and we 
still retain the same ready inclinations to embrace 
all occasions of making a just and honest peace. 
In the mean time yourselves, illustrious and most 
excellent lords, in whom this noble and pious 
sedulity, out of mere evangelical affection, exerts 
itself to reconcile and pacify contending brethren, 
as ye are worthy of all applause among men, so 
doubtless will ye obtain the celestial reward of 
peacemakers with God ; to whose supreme benig- 
nity and favor we heartily recommend in our 
prayers both you and yours, no less ready to make 
returns of all good offices, both of friends and 
brethren, if in anything we may be serviceable to 
your lordships. 

Sealed with the Parliament seal, and subscribed, 
Speaker, &c. 

Westminster, October, 1653. 



420 FROM THE LETTERS OF STATE. 

Oliver, the Protector Sfc, to the most Serene Prince, Imman- 
uel, Duke of Savoy, Prince of Piemont, Greeting : — 

MOST Serene Prince : Letters have been 
sent us from Geneva, as also from the Dau- 
phinate, and many other places bordering upon 
your territories, wherein we are given to under- 
stand, that such of your royal highness's subjects 
as profess the reformed religion, are commanded 
by your edict, and by your authority, within three 
days after the promulgation of your edict, to de- 
part their native seats and habitations, upon pain 
of capital punishment, and forfeiture of all their 
fortunes and estates, unless they will give security 
to relinquish their religion within twenty days, and 
embrace the Roman Catholic faith. And that when 
they applied themselves to your royal highness in a 
most suppliant manner, imploring a revocation of 
the said edict, and that, being received into pristine 
favor, they might be restored to the liberty granted 
them by your predecessors, a part of your army fell 
upon them, most cruelly slew several, put others 
in chains, and compelled the rest to fly into desert 
places, and to the mountains covered with snow, 
where some hundreds of families are reduced to 
such distress, that it is greatly to be feared they 
will in a short time all miserably perish through 
cold and hunger. These things, when they were 
related to us, we could not choose but be touched 
with extreme grief, and compassion for the suffer- 
ings and calamities of this afflicted people. Now 



FROM THE LETTERS OF STATE. 421 

in regard we must acknowledge ourselves linked 
together, not only by the same tie of humanity, but 
by joint communion of the same religion, we 
thought it impossible for us to satisfy our duty to 
God, to brotherly charity, or our profession of the 
same religion, if we should only be affected with a 
bare sorrow for the misery and calamity of our 
brethren, and not contribute all our endeavors to 
relieve and succor them in their unexpected adver- 
sity, as much as in us lies. Therefore in a greater 
measure we most earnestly beseech and conjure 
your royal highness, that you would call back to 
your thoughts the moderation of your most serene 
predecessors, and the liberty by them granted and 
confirmed from time to time to their subjects the 
Vaudois. In granting and confirming which, as 
they did that which without all question was most 
grateful to God, who has been pleased to reserve 
the jurisdiction and power over the conscience to 
himself alone, so there is no doubt but that they 
had a due consideration of their subjects also, 
whom they found stout and most faithful in war, 
and always obedient in peace. And as your royal 
serenity in other tilings most laudably follows the 
footsteps of your immortal ancestors, so we again 
and again beseech your royal highness not to 
swerve from the path wherein they trod in this 
particular ; but that you would vouchsafe to abro- 
gate both this edict, and whatsoever else may be de- 
creed to the disturbance of your subjects upon the 



422 FROM THE LETTERS OF STATE. 

account of the reformed religion ; that you would 
ratify to them their conceded privileges and pris- 
tine liberty, and command their losses to be re- 
paired, and that an end be put to their oppressions. 
Which if your royal highness shall be pleased to 
see performed, you will do a thing most acceptable 
to God, revive and comfort the miserable in dire 
calamity, and most highly oblige all your neigh- 
bors that profess the reformed religion, but more 
especially ourselves, who shall be bound to look 
upon your clemency and benignity toward your 
subjects as the fruit of our earnest solicitation. 
Which will both engage us to a reciprocal return 
to all good offices, and lay the solid foundations 
not only of establishing, but increasing, alliance 
and friendship between this republic and your do- 
minions. Nor do we less promise this to ourselves 
from your justice and moderation ; to which we 
beseech Almighty God to incline your mind and 
thoughts. And so we cordially implore just Heav- 
en to bestow upon your highness and your people 
the blessings of peace and truth, and prosperous 
success in all your affairs. 
Whitehall, May — , 1655. 

Oliver, Protector, fyc, to. the High and Mighty Lords, 
the States of the United Provinces. 

WE make no question but that you have 
already been informed by the Duke of 
Savoy's edict, set forth against his subjects inhabit- 



FROM THE LETTERS OF STATE. 423 

ing the valleys at the feet of the Alps, ancient pro- 
fessors of the orthodox faith ; by which edict they 
are commanded to abandon their native habitations, 
stripped of all their fortunes, unless within twenty 
days they embrace the Roman faith ; and with 
what cruelty the authority of this edict has raged 
against a needy and harmless people, many being 
slain by the soldiers, the rest plundered and driv- 
en from their houses, together with their wives 
and children, to combat cold and hunger among 
desert mountains, and perpetual snow. These 
things with what commotion of mind you heard 
related, what a fellow-feeling of the calamities of 
brethren pierced your breasts, we readily conjec- 
tured from the depth of our own sorrow, which 
certainly is most heavy and afflictive. For being 
engaged together by the same tie of religion, no 
wonder we should be so deeply moved with the 
same affections upon the dreadful and undeserved 
sufferings of our brethren. Besides, that your 
conspicuous piety and charity toward the ortho- 
dox, wherever overborne and oppressed, has been 
frequently experienced in the most urging straits 
and calamities of the churches. For my own 
part, unless my thoughts deceive me, there is 
nothing wherein I should desire more willingly 
to be overcome, than in good-will and charity 
toward brethren of the same religion, afflicted and 
wronged in their quiet enjoyments ; as being one 
that would be accounted always ready to prefer 



-_'.-_ FROM THE LETTERS OF STATE. 

the peace and safety of the churches before my 
particular interests. So far, therefore, as hi" 
lay in our power, we have written to the Duke of 
Savoy, even almost to supplication, beseeching 
him that he would admit into his breast more 
placid thoughts and kinder effects of his favor 
towards his most innocent subjects and suppliants ; 
: old restore the miserable to their habi- 
tatkaia and estates, an< i grant them their pristine 
freedom in the exercise of their religion. More- 
:"r:. we wrote to the chiefest princes and magis- 
::;■"— : :...r :;'::.r:'-:i- ; . ~::n -: :J-_: ■;./:: n::-: 
:::erned in these matters, that they would 
rntreat and pacify the 
Duke of Savoy in their behalf. And we make no 
doubt now but you have done the same, and per- 
haps much more. For this so dangerous a prece- 
dent, and lately removed severity of utmost cruel- 
ty toward the reformed, if the authors of it meet 
with proepero" vhat apparent dangers 

it reduces our religion, we need not admonish 
your prudence. On the other side, if the Duke 

mce but permit himself to be atoned and 
worn by our united applications, not only our af- 
- brethren, but we ourselves shall reap the 
inding harvest and reward of this la- 
borious undertaking. But if he still persist in the 
same obstinate resolutions of reducing to utmost 
extremity those people, (among whom our religion 

:aeir ofeeniinated by the first doctors of the 



FROM THE LETTERS OF STATE. 425 

Gospel, and preserved from the defilement of su- 
perstition, or else restored to its pristine sincerity 
long before other nations obtained that felicity,) 
and determines their utter extirpation and destruc- 
tion ; we are ready to take such other course and 
councils with yourselves, in common with the rest 
of our reformed friends and confederates, as may 
be most necessary for the preservation of just and 
good men, upon the brink of inevitable ruin ; and 
to make the Duke himself sensible that we can no 
longer neglect the heavy oppressions and calamities 
of our orthodox brethren. Farewell. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, fyc, to 
the most High and Mighty Lords, the States of the United 
Provinces. 

MOST High and Mighty Lords, our dearest 
Friends and Confederates : — We make 
no doubt but that all men will bear us this tes- 
timony, that no considerations, in contracting 
foreign alliances, ever swayed us beyond those 
of defending the truth of religion, or that we ac- 
counted anything more sacred, than to unite the 
minds of all the friends and protectors of the Prot- 
estants, and of all others who at least were not 
their enemies. Whence it comes to pass, that we 
are touched with so much the more grief of mind, 
to hear that the Protestant princes and cities, 
whom it so much behoves to live in friendship and 
concord together, should begin to be so jealous of 



426 FROM THE LETTERS OF STATE. 

each other, and so ill disposed to mutual affection ; 
more especially that your lordships and the King 
of Sweden, than whom the orthodox faith has not 
more magnanimous and courageous defenders, nor 
our republic confederates more strictly conjoined 
in interests, should seem to remit of your confi- 
dence in each other ; or rather, that there should 
appear some too apparent signs of tottering friend- 
ship and growing discord between ye. What the 
causes are, and what progress this alienation of 
your affection has made, we protest ourselves to be 
altogether ignorant. However, we cannot but con- 
ceive an extraordinary trouble of mind for these 
beginnings of the least dissension arisen among 
brethren, which infallibly must greatly endanger 
the Protestant interests. Which if they should 
gather strength, how prejudicial it would prove to 
Protestant churches, what an occasion of triumph 
it would afford our enemies, and more especially the 
Spaniards, cannot be unknown to your prudence, 
and most industrious experience of affairs. As for 
the Spaniards, it has already so enlivened their con- 
fidence, and raised their courage, that they made 
no scruple, by their ambassador residing in your 
territories, boldly to obtrude their counsels upon 
your lordships, and that in reference to the highest 
concerns of your republic ; presuming, partly with 
threats of renewing the war, to terrify, and partly 
with a false prospect of advantage, to solicit your 
lordships to forsake your ancient and most faithful 



FROM THE LETTERS OF STATE. 427 

friends, the English, French, and Danes, and enter 
into a strict confederacy with your old enemy, and 
once your domineering tyrant, now seemingly 
atoned ; but, what is most to be feared, only at 
present treacherously fawning to advance his own 
designs. Certainly he who of an inveterate enemy 
lays hold of so slight an occasion of a sudden to 
become your counsellor, what is it that he would 
not take upon him ? Where would his insolency 
stop, if once he could but see with his eyes what 
now he only ruminates and labors in his thoughts ; 
that is to say, division and a civil war among the 
Protestants? We are not ignorant that your lord- 
ships, out of your deep wisdom, frequently revolve 
in your minds what the posture of all Europe is, 
and what more especially the condition of the 
Protestants : that the Cantons of Switzerland, ad- 
hering to the orthodox faith, are in daily expecta- 
tion of new troubles to be raised by their country- 
men embracing the Popish ceremonies ; scarcely 
recovered from that war, which for the sake of 
religion was kindled and blown up by the Span- 
iards, who supplied their enemies both with com- 
manders and money : that the counsels of the 
Spaniards are still contriving to continue the 
slaughter and destruction of the Piedmontois, 
which was cruelly put in execution the last year : 
that the Protestants under the jurisdiction of the 
emperor are most grievously harassed, having 
much ado to keep possession of their native homes : 



428 FROM THE LETTERS OF STATE. 

that the King of Sweden, whom God, as we hope, 
has raised up to be a most stout defender of the 
orthodox faith, is at present waging, with all the 
force of his kingdom, a doubtful and bloody war 
with the most potent enemies of the reformed re- 
ligion : that your own provinces are threatened 
with hostile confederacies of the princes your 
neighbors, headed by the Spaniards ; and lastly, 
that we ourselves are busied in a war proclaimed 
against the King of Spain. In this posture of 
affairs, if any contest should happen between your 
lordships and the King of Sweden, how miserable 
would be the condition of all the reformed 
churches over all Europe, exposed to the cruelty 
and fury of unsanctified enemies ! These cares 
not slightly seize us ; and we hope your sentiments 
to be the same ; and that out of your continued 
zeal for the common cause of the Protestants, and 
to the end the present peace between brethren 
professing the same faith, the same hope of eter- 
nity, may be preserved inviolable, your lordships 
will accommodate your counsels to those considera- 
tions, which are to be preferred before all others ; 
and that you will leave nothing neglected that 
may conduce to the establishing tranquillity and 
union between your lordships and the King of 
Sweden. Wherein, if we can any way be useful, 
as far as our authority, and the favor you bear us 
will sway with your lordships, we freely offer our 
utmost assistance, prepared in like manner to be 



FROM THE LETTERS OF STATE. 429 

no less serviceable to the King of Sweden, to 
whom we design a speedy embassy, to the end we 
may declare our sentiments at large concerning 
these matters. We hope, moreover, that God will 
bend your minds on both sides to moderate coun- 
sels, and so restrain your animosities, that no 
provocation may be given, either by the one or the 
other, to fester your differences to extremity ; but 
that, on the other side, both parties will remove 
whatever may give offence or occasion of jealousy 
to the other. Which, if you shall vouchsafe to do, 
you will disappoint your enemies, prove the con- 
solation of your friends, and in the best manner 
provide for the welfare of your republic. And 
this we beseech you to be fully convinced of, that 
we shall use our utmost care to make appear, upon 
all occasions, our extraordinary affection and good 
will to the states of the United Provinces. And 
so we most earnestly implore the Almighty God to 
perpetuate his blessings of peace, wealth, and lib- 
erty, upon your republic : but above all things to 
preserve it always flourishing in the love of the 
Christian faith, and the true worship of his name. 
Your high and mightinesses' most affectionate, 

Oliver, Protector of the Common- 
wealth of England, §c. 
From our Palace at Westminster, Aug. — , 1656. 



FROM THE 

TREATISE ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 



JOHN MILTON, 
TO ALL THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST, 




TO ALL WHO PKOFESS THE CHRISTIAN FAITH THROUGHOUT 
THE WORLD, 

PEACE, AND THE RECOGNITION OF THE TRUTH, AND 

ETERNAL SALVATION IN GOD THE FATHER, 

AND IN OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 

INCE the commencement of the last 
century, when religion began to be 
restored from the corruptions of more 
than thirteen hundred years to some- 
thing of its original purity, many treatises of the- 
ology have been published, conducted according 
to sounder principles, wherein the chief heads of 
Christian doctrine are set forth, sometimes briefly, 
sometimes in a more enlarged and methodical 
order. I think myself obliged, therefore, to de- 
clare in the first instance why, if any works have 
already appeared as perfect as the nature of the 
subject will admit, I have not remained contented 



ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 431 

with them, — or, if all my predecessors have treated 
it unsuccessfully, why their failure has not deterred 
me from attempting an undertaking of a similar 
kind. 

If I were to say that I had devoted myself to 
the study of the Christian religion because noth- 
ing else can so effectually rescue the lives and 
minds of men from those two detestable curses, 
slavery and superstition, I should seem to have 
acted rather from a regard to my highest earthly 
comforts, than from a religious motive. 

But since it is only to the individual faith of 
each that the Deity has opened the way of eter- 
nal salvation, and as he requires that he who 
would be saved should have a personal belief of 
his own, I resolved not to repose on the faith 
or judgment of others in matters relating to 
God; but on the one hand, having taken the 
grounds of my faith from divine revelation alone, 
and on the other, having neglected nothing which 
depended on my own industry, I thought fit to 
scrutinize and ascertain for myself the several 
points of my religious belief, by the most careful 
perusal and meditation of the Holy Scriptures 
themselves. 

If therefore I mention what has proved bene- 
ficial in my own practice, it is in the hope that 
others, who have a similar wish of improving 
themselves, may be thereby invited to pursue the 
same method. I entered upon an assiduous course 



432 FROM THE TREATISE 

of study in my youth, beginning with the books of 
the Old and New Testament in their original 
languages, and going diligently through a few 
of the shorter systems of divines, in imitation of 
whom I was in the habit of classing under certain 
heads whatever passages of Scripture occurred for 
extraction, to be made use of hereafter as occasion 
might require. At length I resorted with in- 
creased confidence to some of the more copious 
theological treatises, and to the examination of the 
arguments advanced by the conflicting parties re- 
specting certain disputed points of faith. But, to 
speak the truth with freedom as well as candor, I 
was concerned to discover in many instances ad- 
verse reasonings either evaded by wretched shifts, 
or attempted to be refuted, rather speciously than 
with solidity, by an affected display of formal 
sophisms, or by a constant recourse to the quib- 
bles of the grammarians ; while what was most per- 
tinaciously espoused as the true doctrine, seemed 
often defended, with more vehemence than 
strength of argument, by misconstructions of 
Scripture, or by the hasty deduction of errone- 
ous inferences. Owing to these causes, the truth 
was sometimes as strenuously opposed as if it had 
been an error or a heresy, — while errors and 
heresies were substituted for the truth, and val- 
ued rather from deference to custom and the 
spirit of party than from the authority of Scrip- 
ture. 



ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 433 

According to my judgment, therefore, neither 
my creed nor my hope of salvation could be safely 
trusted to such guides ; and yet it appeared highly 
requisite to possess some methodical tractate of 
Christian doctrine, or at least to attempt such a 
disquisition as might be useful in establishing my 
faith or assisting my memory. I deemed it there- 
fore safest and most advisable to compile for my- 
self, by my own labor and study, some original 
treatise which should be always at hand, derived 
solely from the word of God itself, and executed: 
with all possible fidelity, seeing that I could have 
no wish to practise any imposition on myself in 
such a matter. 

After a diligent perseverance in this plan for 
several years, I perceived that the strongholds 
of the reformed religion were sufficiently fortified, 
as far as it was in danger from the Papists, — but 
neglected many other quarters ; neither compe- 
tently strengthened with works of defence, nor 
adequately provided with champions. It was also 
evident to me, that in religion as in other things, 
the offers of God were all directed, not to an 
indolent credulity, but to constant diligence, 
and to an unwearied search after truth ; and that 
more than I was aware of still remained, which 
required to be more rigidly examined by the rule 
of Scripture, and reformed after a more accurate 
model. I so far satisfied myself in the prosecu- 
tion of this plan as at length to trust that I had 

19 BB 



434 FROM THE TREATISE 

discovered, with regard to religion, what was 
matter of belief, and what only matter of opinion. 
It was also a great solace to me to have compiled, 
by God's assistance, a precious aid for my faith, — 
or rather to have laid up for myself a treasure 
which would be a provision for my future life, 
and would remove from my mind all grounds 
for hesitation, as often as it behoved me to render 
an account of the principles of my belief. 

If I communicate the result of my inquiries to 
the world at large ; if, as God is my witness, it be 
with a friendly and benignant feeling towards 
mankind, that I readily give as wide a circulation 
as possible to what I esteem my best and richest 
possession, I hope to meet with a candid reception 
from all parties, and that none at least will take 
unjust offence, even though many things should 
be brought to light which will at once be seen to 
differ from certain received opinions. I earnestly 
beseech all lovers of truth, not to cry out that the 
Church is thrown into confusion by that freedom 
of discussion and inquiry which is granted to 
the schools, and ought certainly to be refused to 
no believer, since we are ordered " to prove all 
things," and since the daily progress of the light 
of truth is productive far less of disturbance to the 
Church, than of illumination and edification. Nor 
do I see how the Church can be more disturbed 
by the investigation of truth, than were the Gen- 
tiles by the first promulgation of the Gospel ; since 



ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 435 

so far from recommending or imposing anything 
on my own authority, it is my particular advice 
that every one should suspend his opinion on 
whatever points he may not feel himself fully 
satisfied, till the evidence of Scripture prevail, 
and persuade his reason into assent and faith. 
Concealment is not my object ; it is to the learned 
that I address myself, or if it be thought that the 
learned are not the best umpires and judges of such 
things, I should at least wish to submit my opin- 
ions to men of a mature and manly understanding, 
possessing a thorough knowledge of the doctrines 
of the Gospel ; on whose judgments I should rely 
with far more confidence, than on those of novices 
in these matters. And whereas the greater part 
of those who have written most largely on these 
subjects have been wont to fill whole pages with 
explanations of their own opinions, thrusting into 
the margin the texts in support of their doctrine 
with a summary reference to the chapter and 
verse, I have chosen, on the contrary, to fill my 
pages, even to redundance, with quotations from 
Scripture, that so as little space as possible might 
be left for my own words, even when they arise 
from the context of revelation itself. 

It has also been my object to make it appear 
from the opinions I shall be found to have ad- 
vanced, whether new or old, of how much conse- 
quence to the Christian religion is the liberty not 
only of winnowing and sifting every doctrine, but 



436 FROM THE TREATISE 

also of thinking and even writing respecting it, 
according to our individual faith and persuasion ; 
an inference which will be stronger in proportion 
to the weight and importance of those opinions, or 
rather in proportion to the authority of Scripture, 
on the abundant testimony of which they rest. 
Without this liberty there is neither religion nor 
Gospel, — force alone prevails, — by which it is 
disgraceful for the Christian religion to be sup- 
ported. Without this liberty we are still en- 
slaved, not indeed, as formerly, under the divine 
law, but, what is worst of all, under the law of 
man, or, to speak more truly, under a barbarous 
tyranny. But I do not expect from candid and 
judicious readers a conduct so unworthy of them, 
— that, like certain unjust and foolish men, they 
should stamp with the invidious name of heretic 
or heresy whatever appears to them to differ from 
the received opinions, without trying the doctrine 
by a comparison with Scripture testimonies. Ac- 
cording to their notions, to have branded any one 
at random with this opprobrious mark, is to have 
refuted him without any trouble, by a single word. 
By the simple imputation of the name of heretic, 
they think that they have despatched their man at 
one blow. To men of this kind I answer, that in 
the time of the apostles, ere the New Testament 
was written, whenever the charge of heresy was 
applied as a term of reproach, that alone was con- 
sidered as heresy which was at variance with their 



ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRIXE. 437 

doctrine orally delivered, — and that those only 
were looked upon as heretics, who, according to 
Rom. xvi. 17, 18, " caused divisions and offences 
contrary to the doctrine " of the apostles. . . . 
" serving not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their 
own belly." By parity of reasoning therefore, 
since the compilation of the Xew Testament, I 
maintain that nothing but what is in contradiction 
to it can properly be called heresy. 

For my own part, I adhere to the Holy Scrip- 
tures alone, — I follow no other heresy or sect. I 
had not even read any of the works of heretics, so 
called, when the mistakes of those who are reck- 
oned for orthodox, and their incautious handling of 
Scripture, first taught me to agree with their op- 
ponents whenever those opponents agreed with 
Scripture. If this be heresy, I confess with St. 
Paul, Acts xxiv. 14, " that after the way which 
they call heresy, so worship I the God of my 
fathers, believing all things which are written in 
the law and the prophets,'' — to which I add, 
whatever is written in the Xew Testament. 
Any other judges or paramount interpreters of 
the Christian belief, together with all implicit 
faith, as it is called, I, in common with the whole 
Protestant Church, refuse to recognize. 

For the rest, brethren, cultivate truth with 
brotherly love. Judge of my present undertak- 
ing according to the admonishing of the Spirit of 
God, — and neither adopt my sentiments nor re- 



438 FROM THE TREATISE 

ject them, unless every doubt has been removed 
from your belief by the clear testimony of revela- 
tion. Finally, live in the faith of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ. Farewell. 



We must conclude, therefore, that God decreed 
nothing absolutely, which he left in the power of 
free agents, — a doctrine which is shown by the 
whole canon of Scripture. Gen. xix. 17, 21, 
" escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. 
.... see, I have accepted thee concerning this 
thing also, that I will not overthrow this city for 
the which thou hast spoken." Exod. hi. 8, 17, 

"I am come down to deliver them and 

to bring them up unto a good land," — though 
these very individuals actually perished in the 
wilderness. God also had determined to deliver 
his people by the hand of Moses, whom he would 
nevertheless have put to death, Exod. iv. 24, if he 
had not immediately circumcised his son. 1 Sam. 
ii. 30, "I said indeed . . . but now Jehovah 
saith, be it far from me; " — and the reason for 
this change is added, — " for, them that honor me 
I will honor." xiii. 13, 14, " now would Jehovah 
have established thy kingdom .... but now thy 
kingdom shall not continue." Again, God had 
said, 2 Kings xx. 1, that Hezekiah should die 
immediately, which event, however, did not hap- 
pen, and therefore could not have been decreed 



ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 439 

without reservation. The death of Josiah was not 
decreed peremptorily, but he would not hearken 
to the voice of Necho when he warned him ac- 
cording to the word of the Lord, not to come out 
against him ; 2 Chron. xxxv. 22. Again, Jer. 
xviii. 9, 10, " at what instant I shall speak con- 
cerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to 
build and to plant it ; if it do evil in my sight, 
that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the 
good wherewith I said I would benefit them," — 
that is, I will rescind the decree, because that 
people hath not kept the condition on which the 
decree depended. Here then is a rule laid down 
by God himself, according to which he would 
always have his decrees understood, — namely, 
that regard should be paid to the conditionate 
terms attached to them. Jer. xxvi. 3, " if so be 
they will hearken, and turn every man from his 
evil way, that I may repent me of the evil, which 
I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of 
their doings." So also God had not even decreed 
absolutely the burning of Jerusalem. Jer. xxxviii. 
17, &c, " thus saith Jehovah .... if thou wilt 
assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon's 
princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city 
shall not be burned with fire." Jonah hi. iv., 
u yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be over- 
thrown," — whereas it appears from the tenth 
verse, that when God saw that they turned from 
their evil way, he repented of his purpose, not' 



440 FROM THE TREATISE 

withstanding the anger of Jonah, who thought the 
change unworthy of God. Acts xxvii. 24, 31, 
" God hath given thee all them that sail with thee ; " 
— and again, — " except these abide in the ship, 
ye cannot be saved," where Paul revokes the 
declaration he had previously made on the au- 
thority of God; or rather, God revokes the gift 
he had made to Paul, except on condition that 
they should consult for their own safety by their 
own personal exertions. 

It appears, therefore, from these passages of 
Scripture, as well as from many others of the 
same kind, to which we must bow, as to a para- 
mount authority, that the most high God has not 
decreed all things absolutely. 

If, however, it be allowable to examine the 
divine decrees by the laws of human reason, since 
so many arguments have been maintained on this 
subject by controvertists on both . sides, with more 
of subtlety than of solid argument, this theory of 
contingent decrees may be defended even on the 
principles of men, as most wise, and in no respect 
unworthy of the Deity. For if those decrees of 
God which have been referred to above, and such 
others of the same class as occur perpetually, were 
to be understood in an absolute sense, without any 
implied conditions, God would contradict himself, 
and appear inconsistent. 

It is argued, however, that in such instances 
not only was the ultimate purpose predestinated, 



ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 441 

but even the means themselves were predesti- 
nated with a view to it. So, indeed, it is as- 
serted, but not on the authority of Scripture ; and 
the silence of Scripture would alone be a suf- 
ficient reason for rejecting the doctrine. But it 
is also attended by this additional inconvenience, 
that it would entirely take away from human 
affairs all liberty of action, all endeavor and de- 
sire to do right. For we might argue thus, — If 
God have at all events decreed my salvation, 
however I may act, I shall not perish. But God 
has also decreed as the means of salvation that 
you should act rightly. I cannot, therefore, but 
act rightly at some time or other, since God has 
so decreed, — in the mean time I will do as I 
please ; if I never act rightly, it will be seen that 
I was never predestinated to salvation, and that 
whatever good I might have done would have 
been to no purpose. See more on this subject in 
the following Chapter. 

Nor is it sufficient to affirm in reply, that it is 
not compulsory necessity which is here intended, 
but a necessity arising from the immutability of 
God, whereby all things are decreed, or a neces- 
sity arising from his infallibility or prescience, 
whereby all things are foreknown. I shall dis- 
pose hereafter of this twofold necessity of the 
schools ; in the mean time no other law of neces- 
sity can be admitted than what logic, or, in other 
words, what sound reason teaches ; that is to say, 

19* 



442 FROM THE TREATISE 

when the efficient either causes some determinate 
and uniform effect by its own inherent propensity, 
as, for example, when fire burns, which kind is 
denominated physical necessity ; or when the 
efficient is compelled by some extraneous force 
to operate the effect, which is called compulsory 
necessity, and in the latter case, whatever effect 
the efficient produces, it produces per accidens. 
Now any necessity arising from external causes 
influences the agent either determinately or com- 
pulsorily ; and it is apparent that on either alter- 
native his liberty must be wholly annihilated. 
But though a certain immutable and internal 
necessity of acting rightly, independent of all 
extraneous influence whatever, may exist in God 
conjointly with the most perfect liberty, both 
which principles in the same divine nature tend 
to the same point, it does not therefore follow that 
the same thing can be conceded with regard to 
two different natures, as the nature of God and 
the nature of man, in which case the external 
immutability of one party may be in opposition 
to the internal liberty of the other, and may pre- 
vent unity of will. Nor is it admitted that the 
actions of God are in themselves necessary, but 
only that he has a necessary existence ; for Scrip- 
ture itself testifies that his decrees, and therefore 
his actions, of what kind soever they be, are per- 
fectly free. 

But it is objected that divine necessity, or a 



ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 443 

first cause, imposes no constraint upon the liberty 
of free agents. I answer, — if it do not constrain, 
it either determines, or co-operates, or is wholly 
inefficient. If it determine or co-operate, it is 
either the sole or the joint and principal cause 
of every action, whether good or bad, of free 
agents. If it be wholly inefficient, it cannot be 
called a cause in any sense, much less can it be 
termed necessity. 

Nor do we imagine anything unworthy of God, 
when we assert that those conditional events de- 
pend on the human will, which God himself has 
chosen to place at the free disposal of man ; since 
the Deity purposely framed his own decrees with 
reference to particular circumstances, in order that 
he might permit free causes to act conformably 
to that liberty with which he had endued them. 
On the contrary, it would be much more un- 
worthy of God, that man should nominally enjoy 
a liberty of which he was virtually deprived, 
which would be the case were that liberty to be 
oppressed or even obscured under the pretext of 
some sophistical necessity of immutability or in- 
fallibility, though not of compulsion, — a notion 
which has led, and still continues to lead, many 
individuals into error. 

However, properly speaking, the divine coun- 
sels can be said to depend on nothing, but on the 
wisdom of God himself, whereby he perfectly 
foreknew in his own mind from the beginning 



444 FROM THE TREATISE 

what would be the nature and event of every fu- 
ture occurrence when its appointed season should 
arrive. 

But it is asked how events, which are uncer- 
tain, inasmuch as they depend on the human will, 
can harmonize with the decrees of God, which are 
immutably fixed? for it is written, Psal. xxxiii. 11, 
" the counsel of Jehovah standeth for ever." See 
also Prov. xix. 21, and Isai. xlvi. 10, Heb. vi. 17, 
" the immutability of his counsel." To this objec- 
tion it may be answered, first, that to God the 
issue of events is not uncertain, but foreknown 
with the utmost certainty, though they be not de- 
creed necessarily, as will appear hereafter. — Sec- 
ondly, in all the passages referred to, the divine 
counsel is said to stand against all human power 
and counsel, but not against liberty of will in 
things which God himself has placed at man's 
disposal, and had determined so to place from all 
eternity. For otherwise one of God's decrees 
would be in direct opposition to another, which 
would lead to the very consequence imputed by 
the objector to the doctrines of his opponents, 
inasmuch as by considering those things as neces- 
sary which the Deity has left to the uncontrolled 
decision of man, God would be rendered mutable. 
But God is not mutable, so long as he decrees 
nothing absolutely which could happen otherwise 
through the liberty assigned to man. He would 
indeed be mutable, neither would his counsel 



ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 445 

stand, if he were to obstruct by another decree 
that liberty which he had already decreed, or were 
to darken it with the least shadow of necessity. 

It follows, therefore, that the liberty of man 
must be considered entirely independent of ne- 
cessity, nor can any admission be made in favor 
of that modification of the principle which is 
founded on the doctrine of God's immutability 
and prescience. If there be any necessity at all, 
as has been stated before, it either determines free 
agents to a particular line of conduct, or it con- 
strains them against their will, or it co-operates 
with them in conjunction with their will, or it is 
altogether inoperative. If it determine free agents 
to a particular line of conduct, man will be ren- 
dered the natural cause of all his actions, and 
consequently of his sins, and formed as it were 
with an inclination for sinning. If it constrain 
them against their will, man being subject to this 
compulsory decree, becomes the cause of sins only 
per accidens, God being the cause of sins per se. 
If it co-operate with them in conjunction with their 
will, then God becomes either the principal or the 
joint cause of sins with man. If finally it be 
altogether inoperative, there is no such thing as 
necessity, it virtually destroys itself by being with- 
out operation. For it is wholly impossible, that 
God should have fixed by a necessary decree what 
we know at the same time to be in the power of 
man : or that that should be immutable which it 



446 FROM THE TREATISE 

remains for subsequent contingent circumstances 
either to fulfil or frustrate. 

Whatever, therefore, was left to the free will of 
our first parents, could not have been decreed im- 
mutably or absolutely from all eternity ; and ques- 
tionless, the Deity must either have never left 
anything in the power of man, or he cannot be 
said to have determined finally respecting what- 
ever was so left without reference to possible con- 
tingencies. 

If it be objected, that this doctrine leads to ab- 
surd consequences, we reply, either the conse- 
quences are not absurd, or they are not the conse- 
quences of the doctrine. For it is neither impi- 
ous nor absurd to say, that the idea of certain 
things or events might be suggested to God from 
some extraneous source ; since inasmuch as God 
had determined from all eternity, that man should 
so far be a free agent, that it remained with him- 
self to decide whether he would stand or fall, the 
idea of that evil event, or of the fall of man, was 
suggested to God from an extraneous source, — a 
truth which all confess. 

Nor does it follow from hence, that what is tem- 
poral becomes the cause of, or a restriction upon 
what is eternal, for it was not anything temporal, 
but the wisdom of the eternal mind that gave oc- 
casion for framing the divine counsel. 

Seeing, therefore, that, in assigning the gift of 
free will, God suffered both men and angels to 



ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 447 

stand or fall at their own uncontrolled choice, 
there can be no doubt that the decree itself bore 
a strict analogy to the object which the divine 
counsel regarded, not necessitating the evil conse- 
quences which ensued, but leaving them contin- 
gent ; hence the covenant was of this kind, — if 
thou stand, thou shalt abide in Paradise ; if thou 
fall, thou shalt be cast out : if thou eat not the for- 
bidden fruit, thou shalt live ; if thou eat, thou 
shalt die. 

Hence, those who contend that the liberty of 
actions is subject to an absolute decree, erroneous- 
ly conclude that the decree of God is the cause of 
his foreknowledge, and antecedent in order of 
time. If we must apply to God a phraseology 
borrowed from our own habits and understanding, 
to consider his decrees as consequent upon his 
foreknowledge seems more agreeable to reason, 
as well as to Scripture, and to the nature of the 
Deity himself, who, as has just been proved, de- 
creed everything according to his infinite wisdom 
by virtue of his foreknowledge. 

That the will of God is the first cause of all 
things, is not intended to be denied, but his pre- 
science and wisdom must not be separated from 
his will, much less considered as subsequent to the 
latter in point of time. The will of God, in fine, 
is not less the universal first cause, because he has 
himself decreed that some things should be left 
to our own free will, than if each particular event 
had been decreed necessarily. 



448 FROM THE TREATISE 

To comprehend the whole matter in a few 
words, the sum of the argument may be thus 
stated in strict conformity with reason. God of 
his wisdom determined to create men and angels 
reasonable beings, and therefore free agents ; fore- 
seeing at the same time which way the bias of 
their will would incline, in the exercise of their 
own uncontrolled liberty. What then ? shall we 
say that this foresight or foreknowledge on the 
part of God imposed on them the necessity of act- 
ing in any definite way ? No more than if the 
future event had been foreseen by any human be- 
ing. For what any human being has foreseen as 
certain to happen, will not less certainly happen 
than what God himself has predicted. Thus 
Elisha foresaw how much evil Hazael would bring 
upon the children of Israel in the course of a few 
years, 2 Kings viii. 12. Yet no one would affirm 
that the evil took place necessarily on account of 
the foreknowledge of Elisha; for had he never 
foreknown it, the event would have occurred with 
equal certainty, through the free will of the agent. 
In like manner nothing happens of necessity, be- 
cause God has foreseen it ; but he foresees the 
event of every action, because he is acquainted 
with their natural causes, which, in pursuance of 
his own decree, are left at liberty to exert their 
legitimate influence. Consequently the issue does 
not depend on God who foresees it, but on him 
alone who is the object of his foresight. Since, 



ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 449 

therefore, as has before been shown, there can be 
no absolute decree of God regarding free agents, 
undoubtedly the prescience of the Deity (which 
can no more bias free agents than the prescience 
of man, that is, not at all, since the action in both 
cases is intransitive, and has no external influence) 
can neither impose any necessity of itself, nor can 
it be considered at all as the cause of free actions. 
If it be so considered, the very name of liberty 
must be altogether abolished as an unmeaning 
sound ; and that not only in matters of religion, 
but even in questions of morality and indifferent 
things. There can be nothing but what will hap- 
pen necessarily, since there is nothing but what 
is foreknown by God. 

That this long discussion may be at length con- 
cluded by a brief summary of the whole matter, 
we must hold that God foreknows all future 
events, but that he has not decreed them all ab- 
solutely : lest the consequence should be that sin 
in general would be imputed to the Deity, and 
evil spirits and wicked men exempted from 
blame 

From what has been said it is sufficiently evi- 
dent, that free causes are not impeded by any law 
of necessity arising from the decrees or prescience 
of God. There are some who, in their zeal to op- 
pose this doctrine, do not hesitate even to assert 
that God is himself the cause and origin of sin. 
Such men, if they are not to be looked upon as 



450 FROM THE TREATISE 

misguided rather that mischievous, should be 
ranked among the most abandoned of all blas- 
phemers. An attempt to refute them, would be 
nothing more than an argument to prove that God 

was not the evil spirit 

Generation must be an external efficiency, since 
the Father and Son are different persons ; and the 
divines themselves acknowledge this, who argue 
that there is a certain emanation of the Son from 
the Father (which will be explained when the 
doctrine concerning the Holy Spirit is under ex- 
amination) ; for though they teach that the Spirit 
is co-essential with the Father, they do not deny 
its emanation, procession, spiration, and issuing 
from the Father, — which are all expressions de- 
noting external efficiency. In conjunction with 
•this doctrine they hold that the Son is also co- 
essential with the Father, and generated from all 
eternity. Hence this question, which is naturally 
very obscure, becomes involved in still greater 
difficulties if the received opinion respecting it be 
followed ; for though the Father be said in Scrip- 
ture to have begotten the Son in a double sense, 
the one literal, with reference to the production 
of the Son, the other metaphorical, with reference 
to his exaltation, many commentators have applied 
the passages which allude to the exaltation and 
mediatorial functions of Christ as proof of his gen- 
eration from all eternity. They have indeed this 
excuse, if any excuse can be received in such a 



ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 451 

case, that it is impossible to find a single text in all 
Scripture to prove the eternal generation of the 
Son. Certain, however, it is, whatever some of 
the moderns may allege to the contrary, that the 
Son existed in the beginning, under the name of 
the logos, or word, and was the first of the whole 
creation, by whom afterwards all other things were 
made, both in heaven and earth. John i. 1-3, 
" in the beginning was the Word, and the Word 
was with God, and the Word was God," &c. 
xvii. 5, " and now, O Father, glorify me with 
thine own self with the glory which I had with 
thee before the world was." Col. i. 15, 18, " the 
first-born of every creature." 4 Rev. hi. 14, "the 
beginning of the creation of God." 1 Cor. viii. 6, 
" Jesus Christ, by whom are all things." Eph. hi. 9, 
" who created all things by Jesus Christ." Col. 
i. 16, " all things were created by him and for 
him." Heb. i. 2, " by whom also he made the 
worlds," whence it is said, v. 10, " thou, Lord, in 
the beginning hast laid the foundation of the 
earth " ; respecting which more will be said in the 
seventh chapter, on the Creation. 

All these passages prove the existence of the 
Son before the world was made, but they conclude 
nothing respecting his generation from all eternity. 
The other texts which are produced relate only to 
his metaphorical generation, that is, to his resusci- 
tation from the dead, or to his unction to the me- 
diatorial office, according to St. Paul's own inter- 



452 FROM THE TREATISE 

pretation of the second Psalm : " I will declare 
the decree ; Jehovah hath said unto me, Thou art 
my Son ; this day have I begotten thee," — which 
the apostle thus explains, Acts xiii. 32, 33, 
u God hath fulfilled the promise unto us their 
children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again ; 
as it is also written in the second Psalm, Thou art 
my Son ; this day have I begotten thee." Rom. 
i. 4, " declared to be the Son of God with power, 
according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrec- 
tion from the dead." Hence, Col. i. 18, Rev. i. 4, 
" the first begotten of the dead." Heb. i. 5, 
speaking of the exaltation of the Son above the 
angels ; "for unto which of the angels said he at 
any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I be- 
gotten thee ? and again, I will be to him a Father, 
and he shall be to me a Son." Again, v. 5, 6, 
with reference to the priesthood of Christ ; "so 
also Christ glorified not himself to be made an 
High Priest, but he that said unto him, Thou art 
my Son, this day have I begotten thee : as he said 
also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever," 
&c. Further, it will be apparent from the second 
Psalm, that God has begotten the Son, that is, has 
made him a king : v. 6, " yet have I set my King 
upon my holy hill of Sion " ; and then in the next 
verse, after having anointed his King, whence the 
name of Christ is derived, he says, " this day have 
I begotten thee." Heb. i. 4, 5, " being made so 
much better than the angels, as he hath by inner- 



ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 453 

itance obtained a more excellent name than they." 
No other name can be intended but that of Son, 
as the following verse proves : "for unto which of 
the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son ; 
this day have I begotten thee ? " The Son also 
declares the same of himself. John x. 35, 36, 
" say ye of Him whom the Father hath sanctified, 
and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest, be- 
cause I said, I am the Son of God ? " By a simi- 
lar figure of speech, though in a much lower 
sense, the saints are also said to be begotten of 
God. 

It is evident, however, upon a careful comparison 
and examination of all these passages, and particu- 
larly from the whole of the second Psalm, that 
however the generation of the Son may have 
taken place, it arose from no natural necessity, as 
is generally contended, but was no less owing to 
the decree and will of the Father than his priest- 
hood or kingly power, or his resuscitation from the 
dead. Nor is it any objection to this that he bears 
the title of begotten, in whatever sense that ex- 
pression is to be understood, or of God's own Son, 
Rom. viii. 32. For he is called the own Son of 
God merely because he had no other Father be- 
sides God, whence he himself said, that God icas 
his Father, John v. 18. For to Adam God stood 
less in the relation of Father, than of Creator, 
having only formed him from the dust of the 
earth ; whereas he was properly the Father of the 



454 FROM THE TREATISE 

Son made of his own substance. Yet it does not 
follow from hence that the Son is co-essential with 
the Father, for then the title of Son would be least 
of all applicable to him, since he who is properly 
the Son is not coeval with the Father, much less 
of the same numerical essence, otherwise the 
Father and the Son would be one person ; nor did 
the Father beget him from any natural necessity, 
but of his own free will, — a mode more perfect 
and more agreeable to the paternal dignity ; par- 
ticularly since the Father is God, all whose works, 
and consequently the works of generation, are ex- 
ecuted freely according to his own good pleasure, 
as has been already proved from Scripture. 

For, questionless, it was in God's" power consist- 
ently with the perfection of his own essence not 
to have begotten the Son, inasmuch as generation 
does not pertain to the nature of the Deity, who 
stands in no need of propagation ; but whatever 
does not pertain to his own essence or nature, he 
does not effect like a natural agent from any phy- 
sical necessity. If the generation of the Son pro- 
ceeded from a physical necessity, the Father im- 
paired himself by physically begetting a co-equal ; 
which God could no more do than he could deny 
himself; therefore the generation of the Son can- 
not have proceeded otherwise than from a decree, 
and of the Father's own free will. 

Thus the Son was begotten of the Father in 
consequence of his decree, and therefore within 



ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 455 

the limits of time, for the decree itself must have 
been anterior to the execution of the decree, as is 
sufficiently clear from the insertion of the word 

to-day 

According to the testimony of the Son, deliv- 
ered in the clearest terms, the Father is that one 
true God, by whom are all things. Being asked 
by one of the scribes, Mark xii. 28, 29, 32, which 
was the first commandment of all, he answered 
from Deut. vi. 4, " the first of all the command- 
ments is, ' Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is 
one Lord '" ; or as it is in the Hebrew, " Jehovah 
our God is one Jehovah." The scribe assented ; 
" there is one God, and there is none other one 
but he " ; and in the following verse Christ ap- 
proves this answer. Nothing can be more clear 
than that it was the opinion of the scribe, as well 
as of the other Jews, that by the unity of God is 
intended his oneness of person. That this God 
was no other than God the Father, is proved from 
John viii. 41, 54, " we have one Father, even 
God .... it is my Father that honoreth me ; of 
whom ye say that he is your God." iv. 21, 
"neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, 
shall ye worship the Father." Christ therefore 
agrees with the whole people of God, that the 
Father is that one and only God. For who can 
believe it possible for the very first of the com- 
mandments to have been so obscure, and so ill 
understood by the Church through such a succes- 



456 FROM THE TREATISE 

sion of ages, that two other persons, equally en- 
titled to worship, should have remained wholly 
unknown to the people of God, and debarred of 
divine honors even to that very day ? especially as 
God, where he is teaching his own people respect- 
ing the nature of their worship under the Gospel, 
forewarns them that they would have for their 
God the one Jehovah whom they had always 
served, and David, that is, Christ, for their King 
and Lord. Jer. xxx. 9, " they shall serve Jeho- 
vah their God, and David their King, whom I 
will raise up unto them." In this passage Christ, 
such as God willed that he should be known or 
worshipped by his people under the Gospel, is ex- 
pressly distinguished from the one God Jehovah, 
both by nature and title. Christ himself there- 
fore, the Son of God, teaches us nothing in the 
Gospel respecting the one God but what the law 
had before taught, and everywhere clearly asserts 
him to be his Father. John xvii. 3, " this is life 
eternal, that they might know thee, the only true 
God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." 
xx. 17, " I ascend unto my Father and your 
Father ; and to my God and your God" ; if there- 
fore the Father be the God of Christ, and the same 
be our God, and if there be none other God but 
one, there can be no God beside the Father. . . . 
Recurring, however, to the Gospel itself, on 
which, as on a foundation, our dependence should 
chiefly be placed, and adducing my proofs more 



ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 457 

especially from the evangelist John, the leading 
purpose of whose work was to declare explicitly 
the nature of the Son's divinity, I proceed to de- 
monstrate the other proposition announced in my 
original division of the subject, — namely, that the 
Son himself professes to have received from the 
Father, not only the name of God and of Jehovah, 
but all that pertains to his own being, — that is to 
say, his individuality, his existence itself, his attri- 
butes, his works, his divine honors ; to which doc- 
trine the apostles also, subsequent to Christ, bear 
their testimony. John iii. 35, " the Father loveth 
the Son, and hath given all things unto him." 
xiii. 3, " Jesus knowing that the Father had given 
all things unto him, and that he was come from 
God." Mat. xi. 27, "all things are delivered 
unto me of my Father." .... 

Christ therefore, having received all these things 
from the Father, and " being in the form of God, 
thought it not robbery to be equal with God," 
Philipp. ii. 5, namely, because he had obtained 
them by gift, not by robbery. For if this passage 
imply his co-equality with the Father, it rather 
refutes than proves his unity of essence ; since 
equality cannot exist but between two or more 
essences. Further, the phrase he did not think it, 
— he made himself of no reputation, (literally, he 
emptied himself,*) appear inapplicable to the su- 
preme God. For to think is nothing else than to 
entertain an opinion, which cannot be properly 

20 



458 FROM THE TREATISE 

said of God. Nor can the infinite God be said to 
empty himself, any more than to contradict him- 
self ; for infinity and emptiness are opposite terms. 
But since he emptied himself of that form of God 
in which he had previously existed, if the form of 
God is to he taken for the essence of the Deity 
itself, it would prove him to have emptied himself 
of that essence, which is impossible 

Such was the faith of the saints respecting the 
Son of God ; such is the tenor of the celebrated 
confession of that faith ; such is the doctrine which 
alone is taught in Scripture, which is acceptable to 
God, and has the promise of eternal salvation. . . . 

Finally, this is the faith proposed to us in the 
Apostles' Creed, the most ancient and universally 
received compendium of belief in the possession 
of the Church 



The intent of supernatural renovation is 
not only to restore man more completely than be- 
fore to the use of his natural faculties as regards 
his power to form right judgment, and to exercise 
free will ; but to create afresh, as it were, the in- 
ward man, and infuse from above new and super- 
natural faculties into the minds of the renovated. 
This is called regeneration, and the regenerate 
are said to be planted in Christ. 

Regeneration is that change operated by 



ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 459 

the Word and the Spirit, whereby the old 
man being destroyed, the inward man is re- 
GENERATED by God after his own image, in 

ALL THE FACULTIES OF HIS MIND, INSOMUCH THAT 
HE BECOMES AS IT WERE A NEW CREATURE, AND 
THE WHOLE MAN IS SANCTIFIED BOTH IN BODY AND 
SOUL, FOR THE SERVICE OF GOD, AND THE PER- 
FORMANCE of good works. John iii. 3, 5, " ex- 
cept a man be born again, he cannot see the king- 
dom of God .... except a man be born of water 
and the Spirit." 1 Pet. i. 23, " being born again, 
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible." 

Is regenerated by God ; namely, the Father ; 
for no one regenerates, except the Father. Psal. 
li. 10, "create in me a clean heart, O God, and 
renew a right spirit within me." Ezek. xi. 19, 
" I will put a new spirit within you." John i. 12, 
13, " to them gave he the power to become the 
sons of God .... which were born, not of blood 
.... but of God." iii. 5, 6, " except a man be 
born of water and the Spirit — " ; where by the 
Spirit appears to be meant the divine power of the 
Father ; for the Father is a Spirit ; and, as was 
said before, no one generates except the Father, 
xvii. 17, " sanctify them through thy truth." 
Rom. viii. 11, 16, " but if the Spirit of him that 
raised up Jesus from the dead — : the Spirit itself 
beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the 
children of God." Gal. iv. 6, " because ye are 
sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into 



460 FROM THE TREATISE 

your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." Eph. ii. 4, 5, 
" God who is rich in mercy .... hath quickened 
us together with Christ." 1 Thess. v. 23, " the 
very God of peace sanctify you wholly." Tit. iii. 
5, " according to his mercy he saved us by the 
washing of regeneration and renewing of the 
Holy Ghost." Heb. xiii. 20, " the God of peace 
.... make you perfect in every good work." 
1 Pet. i. 3, " blessed be the God and Father of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his 
abundant mercy hath begotten us again — ." 
James i. 17-, 18, "of his own will begat he us." 

By the Word and the Spirit. John xvii. 
17, " sanctify them through thy truth ; thy word 
is truth." James i. 18, " of his own will begat 
he us with the word of truth." Eph. v. 26, 
"that he might cleanse it with the washing of 
water by the Word." 1 Cor. xii. 13, " by one 
Spirit we are all baptized into one body." Tit. iii. 
5, " by the washing of regeneration and renewing 
of the Holy Ghost." 

The inward man. John iii. 5, 6, " that which 
is born of the Spirit is spirit." Rom. vii. 22, 
"after the inward man." 

The old man being destroyed. Rom. vi. 6, 
" knowing this, that our old man is crucified with 
him, that the body of sin might be destroyed." 
v. 11, " likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be 
dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through 
Jesus Christ our Lord." 2 Cor. v. 17, " old 



ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 461 

things are passed away ; behold, all things are be- 
come new." Col. iii. 9-11, "that ye have put 
off the old man with his deeds, and have put on 
the new man." 

In all the faculties of his mind ; that is 
to say, in understanding and will. Psal. li. 10, 
" create in me a clean heart, O God." Ezek. xi. 
19, "I will put a new spirit within you .... 
and I will give them an heart of flesh." xxxvi. 
26, " a new heart also will I give you, and a new 
spirit will I put within you." Rom. xii. 2, u be 
ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, 
that ye may prove what is that good .... will 
of God." Eph. iv. 23, " be renewed in the spirit 
of your mind." Philipp. ii. 13, " it is God which 
worketh in you both to will and do his good pleas- 
ure." This renewal of the will can mean nothing, 
but a restoration to its former liberty. 

After his own image. Eph. iv. 24, " put on 
the new man, which after God is created in right- 
eousness and true holiness." Col. iii. 9-11, 
" which is renewed in knowledge after the image 
of him that created him." 2 Pet. i. 4, "that by 
these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, 
having escaped the corruption that is in the world 
through lust." If the choice were given us, we 
could ask nothing more of God, than that, being 
delivered from the slavery of sin, and restored to 
the divine image, we might have it in our power 
to obtain salvation if willing. Willing we shall 



462 FROM THE TREATISE 

undoubtedly be, if truly free ; and be who is not 
willing, has no one to accuse but himself. But if 
the will of the regenerate be not made free, then 
we are not renewed, but compelled to embrace 
salvation in an unregenerate state. 

A new creature. 2 Cor. v. 17, " if any man 
be in Christ, he is a new creature." Gal. vi. 15, 
" a new creature." Eph. iv. 24, " the new man." 
See also Col. iii. 10, 11. Hence some, less proper- 
ly, divide regeneration into two parts, the mortifi- 
cation of the flesh, and the quickening of the spirit ; 
whereas mortification cannot be a constituent part 
of regeneration, inasmuch as it partly precedes it, 
(that is to say, as corruption precedes generation,) 
and partly follows it ; in which latter capacity it 
belongs rather to repentance. On the other hand, 
the quickening of the spirit is as often used to sig- 
nify resurrection as regeneration. John v. 21, 
" as the Father raiseth up the dead and quicken- 
eth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he 
will." v. 25, "the dead shall hear the voice of 
the Son of God, and they that hear shall live." 

The whole man. 1 Cor. vi. 15, 19, u know 
ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy 
Ghost which is in you ? " 1 Thess. v. 23, " the 
very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray 
God your whole spirit and soal and body be pre- 
served blameless unto the coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ." 

For the performance of good works. 1 



ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 463 

John ii. 29, " if ye know that he is righteous, ye 
know that every one that doeth righteousness is 
born of him." Eph. ii. 10, " we are his work- 
manship, created in Christ Jesus unto good 
works." 

Is sanctified. 1 John iii. 9, "whosoever is 
born of God, doth not commit sin, for his seed re- 
maineth in him ; and he cannot sin because he is 
born of God." v. 18, " whosoever is born of God, 
sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keep- 
eth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him 
not." Hence regeneration is sometimes termed 
sanctification, being the literal mode of expressing 
that, for which regeneration is merely a figurative 
phrase. 1 Cor. vi. 11, " such were some of you ; 
but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye 
are justified." 1 Thess. iv. 7, " God hath not 
called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness." 2 
Thess. ii. 13. " because God hath from the begin- 
ning chosen you to salvation through sanctification 
of the Spirit." 1 Pet. i. 2, "according to the 
foreknowledge of God the Father, through the 
sanctification of the Spirit. " Deut. xxx. 6, " Je- 
hovah thy God will circumcise thine heart, and 
the heart of thy seed, to love Jehovah thy God." 
Sanctification is also attributed to the Son. Eph. 
v. 25, 26, " Christ loved the church, and gave 
himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse 
it with the washing of water by the word." 
Tit. ii. 14, "that he might redeem us from all 



464 FROM THE TREATISE 

iniquity, and purify unto himself (unto himself as 
our Redeemer and King) a peculiar people." 

Sanctification is sometimes used in a more ex- 
tended sense, for any kind of election or separa- 
tion, either of a whole nation to some particular 
form of worship, or of an individual to some office. 
Exod. xix. 10, " sanctify them to-day and to-mor- 
row." xxxi. 13, " that ye may know that I am 
Jehovah that doth sanctify you." See also Ezek. 
xx. 12 ; Numb. xi. 18, " sanctify yourselves against 
to-morrow." Jer. i. 5, " before thou earnest forth 
out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained 
thee a prophet unto the nations." Luke i. 15, 
"he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even 
from his mother's womb." 

The external cause of regeneration or sanctifi- 
cation is the death and resurrection of Christ. 
Eph. ii. 4, 5, " when we were dead in sins, God 
hath quickened us together with Christ." v. 25, 
26, " Christ gave himself for the church, that he 
might sanctify and cleanse it." Heb. ix. 14, 
" how much more shall the blood of Christ, who 
through the eternal Spirit offered himself without 
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead 
works to serve the living God." x. 10, " by the 
which will we are sanctified through the offering 
of the body of Jesus Christ." 1 Pet. i. 2, 3, 
"through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obe- 
dience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ 
, . . . which hath begotten us again by a lively 



ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 465 

hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the 
dead." 1 John i. 7, " the blood of Jesus Christ 
his Son cleanseth us from all sin." 

Sanctification is attributed also to faith. Acts 
xv. 9, " purifying their hearts by faith " ; not that 
faith is anterior to sanctification, but because faith 
is an instrumental and assisting cause in its gradual 
progress. 




20* 



A LIST OF MILTON'S PROSE WORKS. 

ARRANGED. IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER. 

1641. — 1. Of Reformation in England, and the Causes that 

hitherto have hindered it. In Two Books. Written 
to a Friend. 

2. Of Prelatical Episcopacy, and whether it may be 
deduced from the Apostolical Times, by Virtue of 
those Testimonies which are alleged to that Purpose 
in some late Treatises ; one whereof goes under the 
name of James, Archbishop of Armagh. 

3. The Reason of Church Government urged against 
Prelaty. In Two Books. 

4. Animadversions upon the Remonstrant's Defence 
against Smectymnuus. 

1642. — 5. An Apology against a Pamphlet called " A Modest 

Confutation of the Animadversions upon the Remon- 
strant against Smectymnuus." (Better known by its 
briefer title, An Apology for Smectymnuus.) 
1644. — 6. The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce ; restored 
to the Good of both Sexes, from the Bondage of 
Canon Law, and other Mistakes, to the true meaning 
of Scripture in the Law and Gospel compared. 
Wherein also are set down the bad Consequences of 
abolishing, or condemning as Sin, that which the Law 
of God allows, and Christ abolished not. Now the 
second time revised and much augmented. In Two 
Books. To the Parliament of England with the 



468 LIST OF MILTON'S PROSE WORKS. 

Assembly. (Two editions were published in the 
same year. The title given above is of the second.) 

1644. — 7. The Judgment of Martin Bucer, concerning Di- 

vorce : written to Edward the Sixth, in his Second 
Book of the Kingdom of Christ : and now Englished. 
Wherein a late Book, restoring " the Doctrine and 
Discipline of Divorce," is here confirmed and justi- 
fied by the Authority of Martin Bucer. To the 
Parliament of England. 

8. On Education. (In a Letter to Master Samuel 
Hartlib.) 

9. Areopagitica : a Speech for the Liberty of Un- 
licensed Printing. To the Parliament of England. 

1645. — 10. Tetrachordon : Expositions upon the Four Chief 

Places in Scripture which treat of Marriage, or 
Nullities in Marriage. Wherein " the Doctrine and 
Discipline of Divorce," as was lately published, is 
confirmed by Explanation of Scripture; by Testi- 
mony of Ancient Fathers ; of Civil Laws in the 
Primitive Church ; of famousest Reformed Divines ; 
and lastly, by an intended Act of the Parliament 
and Church of England in the last Year of Edward 
the Sixth. 
11. Colasterion : a Reply to a Nameless Answer 
against " the Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce." 
Wherein the trivial Author of that Answer is dis- 
covered, the Licenser conferred with, and the 
Opinion which they traduce defended. 
1648-9 (Feb.). — 12. The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates : 
proving that it is lawful, and hath been held so 
through all Ages, for any who have the Power, to 
call to Account a Tyrant, or wicked King, and after 
due Conviction, to depose, and put him to Death, if 
the ordinary Magistrate have neglected or denied to 
do it. And that they who of late so much blame 
deposing, the Presbyterians, are the men that did it 
themselves. 



LIST OF MILTON'S PROSE WORKS. 469 

1648-9. — 13. Observations on the Articles of Peace, between 
James Earl of Ormond for King Charles the First 
on the one hand, and the Irish Rebels and Papists 
on the other hand : and on a Letter sent by Ormond 
to Colonel Jones, Governor of Dublin. And a 
Representation of the Scots Presbytery at Belfast in 
Ireland. To which the said Articles, Letter, with 
Colonel Jones's Answer to it, and Representation, 
&c, are prefixed. (Published before his appointment 
as Latin Secretary, March 15th, 1648-9.) 

1649. — 14. Eikonoklastes : in Answer to a Book entitled 

" Eikon Basilike, The Portraiture of His Sacred 
Majesty in his Solitudes and Sufferings." 

1650. — 15. Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio, contra Claudii 

anonymi alias Salmasii Defensionem Regiam. A 
Defence of the People of England; in Answer to 
Salmasius's Defence of the King. (The translation 
is ascribed by Toland to Mr. Washington of the 
Temple.) 

1654. — 16. Defensio Secunda pro Populo Anglicano contra 

Infamem Libellum anonymum, cui titulus, Regii 
Sanguinis Clamor ad Coelum adversus Parricidas 
Anglicanos. The Second Defence of the People of 
England : against an anonymous Libel, entitled 
" The Royal Blood crying to Heaven for Vengeance 
on the English Parricides." (The translation is by 
Robert Fellowes, A. M., Oxon.) 

1655. — 17. Authoris pro se Defensio contra Alexandrum 

Morum Libelli, cui titulus, Regii Sanguinis, &c. 
Authorem recte dictum. 

18. Authoris ad Alexandri Mori Supplementum Re- 
sponsio. (These two polemic tracts have, I think, 
never been translated.) 

19. A Manifesto of the Lord Protector to the Com- 
monwealth of England, Scotland, Ireland, &e. 
Published by consent and advice of his Council. 



470 LIST OF MILTON'S PROSE WORKS. 

Wherein is shown the Reasonableness of the Cause 
of this Republic against the Depredations of the 
Spaniards. (Written in Latin by John Milton, and 
first printed in 1655 ; translated into English in 
1738.) 

1659. — 20. A Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical 

Causes ; showing that it is not lawful for any Power 
on Earth to compel in matters of Religion. To the 
Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, with 
the Dominions thereof. 

21. Considerations touching the likeliest Means to 
remove Hirelings out of the Church. Wherein is 
also discoursed of Tithes, Church Fees, and Church 
Revenues ; and whether any Maintenance of Minis- 
ters can be settled by Law. To the Parliament of 
England, with the Dominions thereof. 

22. A Letter to a Friend concerning the Ruptures of 
the Commonwealth. (Dated Oct. 20, 1659, but first 
published by Toland in 1698.) 

23. The Present Means and Brief Delineation of a 
Free Commonwealth, easy to be put in practice, and 
without delay. In a Letter to General Monk. 

1660. — 24. The ready and easy Way to establish a free 

Commonwealth, and the Excellence thereof, com- 
pared with the Inconveniences and Dangers of 
re-admitting Kingship in this Nation. 
25. Brief Notes upon a late Sermon titled, The Fear 
of God and the King ; preached and since published 
by Matthew Griffith, D. D., and Chaplain to the late 
King. Wherein many notorious wrestings of Scrip- 
ture, and other Falsities, are observed. 

1661. — 26. Accedence Commenced Grammar, supplied with 

Sufficient Rules for the use of such as, younger or 
elder, are desirous, without more trouble than needs, 
to attain the Latin Tongue ; the elder sort especially, 
with little teaching and their own industry. (It had 



LIST OF MILTON'S PROSE WORKS. 471 

probably been prepared some years before its pub- 
lication.) 

1670. — 27. The History of Britain, that part especially now- 
called England, from the first Traditional Beginning 
continued to the Norman Conquest; collected out 
of the ancientest and best Authors thereof. (This 
work, though published in 1670, was written mostly 
before the Restoration. The royal licenser expunged 
several passages, which appeared in a pamphlet by 
themselves in 1681, and were incorporated into an 
edition of Milton's Prose Works published in 1738. 
See a brief notice of this in DTsraeli's Curiosities of 
Literature, Vol. II., p. 408, and Vol. III., p. 206.) 

1672. — 28. Artis Logicse Plenior Institutio ad Petri Rami 
Methodum concinnata. System of Logic after Peter 
Ramus. (Not translated. This too had been in 
manuscript many years before publication.) 

1673. —29. Of True Religion, Heresy, Schism, Toleration ; 

and what best Means may be used against the 
Growth of Popery. 

1674. — 30. Epistolarum Familiarum Liber Unus ; quibus ac- 

cesserunt Prolusiones quaedam Oratoriae in Collegio 
Christi habitse. (The Familiar Letters, extending 
from 1625 to 1666, have been translated by Mr. 
Fellowes of Oxford. Of the "Prolusiones," or 
Academical Essays, seven in number, no complete 
translation has been published. Professor Masson, 
who has found them "full of biographical light," 
yet remarks : " I really have found no evidence that 
as many as ten persons have read them through 
before me." He has given a full account of these 
Essays, with copious extracts, in his Life of Milton, 
Vol. I. pp. 204 - 230. ) 
31. A Declaration, or Letters-Patent, for the Election 
of this present King of Poland, John the Third, 
elected on the 22nd of May last past, A. D. 1674. 



472 LIST OF MILTON'S PROSE WORKS. 

Containing the Reasons of this Election, the great 
Virtues and Merits of the said serene Elect, his emi- 
nent Services in War, especially in his last great 
Victory against the Turks and Tartars, whereof 
many particulars are here related, not published 
before. Now faithfully translated from the Latin 
copy. 

1676. — 32. Literae Senatus Anglicani; necnon Cromwellii. 
The Letters of State. These were published in 
the original in 1676, then translated into English, 
and published in 1694. 

1682. — 33. A brief History of Moscovia and of other best- 
known Countries lying eastward of Russia as far as 
Cathay; gathered from the Writings of several 
Eyewitnesses. 

1823. — 34. Joannis Miltoni Angli de Doctrina Christiana 
ex sacris duntaxat Libris petita Disquisitionum Libri 
duo posthumia. The Christian Doctrine. (A Latin 
MS. bearing the above title was accidentally dis- 
covered in 1823 by Mr. Lemon in the State-Paper 
Office. It was edited and afterwards translated by 
Rev. Charles R. Sumner, Bishop of Winchester. 
The Christian Doctrine is generally supposed to 
have been written by Milton late in life; but a 
contrary view is ably maintained in an article of 
considerable length published in the Bibliotheca 
Sacra, Vol. XVI. p. 557, and Vol. XVII. p. 1.) 

In addition to the works above mentioned, a few fragments 
have lately appeared. It is not likely that any important 
work of Milton remains now undiscovered. 



INDEX 



Abraham, 29. 

Absolute Monarchy, 279. 

Academics, 153. 

Academies, Italian, 46. 

Achilles referred to, 310. 

Admonition, minister's use of, 
58. 

Advice cannot insure public 
safety, 212. 

Affections, tyranny of blind, 170. 

Amadis (de "Gaul)* 203. 

Amendment of old grievances, 
134. 

Ancestry, illustrious, 89. 

Angels, orders of, 31. 

Anger, sad, against errors, 65. 

Anteros, 148. 

Antichrist, 189. 

Antiochus, 158 — lifeless Colos- 
sus of, 68. 

Antiquity, 25, 27. 

Apocalypse of John, 49, 253. 

Apollonius quoted, 307. 

Apostles' Creed, 150. 

Apostolic Scriptures, 105. 

Apostate, Julian the, 110. 

Appollinarii, 110. 

Arcadia (Sidney's), 199, 202. 

Areopagitica mentioned, 326. 

Ariosto, 47. 

Aristotle, cited or noticed, 11, 
48, 176, 197, 266, 271, 278, 289. 

Armada, Spanish, 22. 

Army, the English, 263, 283, 331. 
" under Cromwell, 335. 

Arno, 408. 

Arts, errors in teaching, 102. 

Atheists not tolerated by Parlia- 
ment, 191. 

Athenian Commonwealth, 385. 

Athenians, 48, 313. 

Athens, 48, 156, 386, 407, 408. 
u literature of, 411. 



Author's allusions to himself, 
42-54, 78-83, 258, 296-329, 
409,411-413. 
Author's birth and parentage, 

318. 
Author's blindness, 305, 306- 

313 — described, 411-413. 
Author's bodily stature, 305. 
" choice to defend liberty 
with the pen, 300. 
Author's choice to write in Eng- 
lish, 47. 
Author's early education, 46. 
" " preparation for 

the Church, 54. 
Author's early studies, 78, 79. 
" friends, kindness of, 
312. 
Author's gratitude expressed for 

divine goodness, 296. 
Author's integrity affirmed, 309. 
" labors gratuitous, 328. 
" " successful and 

influential, 301. 
Author's life not licentious, 78. 
" literary hopes, 47. 
" morning haunts, 78. 
" opponent, charges of, 



304. 

Author 
hopes 



47 



poetic promise, 
48. 

Author's promise of a great poem, 
53,74. 

Author's reasons for engaging in 
controversy, 42. 

Author's reasons for defending 
the English people, 258. 

Author's Studies in Christian 
Doctrine, 430 - 432. 

Author's studies, early, 46, 78, 
319 — in poetry, 79 — in ro- 
mances, 81 — in philosophy, 82 
— collegiate and at home, 319. 



474 



INDEX. 



Author's studies, later, 323. 

" visit to Italy, 47, 320, 
409. 

Author's writings defending re- 
ligious liberty, 324 — domes- 
tic, 325 — on education, 325 — 
Areopagitica, 326 — against 
Charles I., 327. 

Bacon, Sir Francis, 87, 117. 
Bad books, use of, to good men, 

111. 
Bad man, the, a tyrant, 304 — 

men do not hate tyrants, 171 

— misjudge the gobd, 171. 
Balaam, 13, 73. 

Balak, 239. 

Baptist, the, 84, 144. 

Basil, St., 179. 

Beatrice and Laura, 80. 

Belisarius, 49. 

Bembo, 47. 

Bible, in the Reformation, 4 — 
liberal sciences taught from, 
111. 

Bishops serviceable to tyrants, 
239. 

Blessings, full, to be received, 2, 
18. 

Blindness, author's, 305, 306- 
313, 411 - 413 — historical ex- 
amples of, 307, 308— not a 
punishment from God, 309. 

Books, care necessary concern- 
ing, 107 — vital power of, 108 

— value of good, 108 — hereti- 
cal, when first prohibited, 108 

— Moses and others learned in 
heathen, 110 — Julian forbade 
heathen, to Christians, 110 — 
use of bad, to good men, 111 — 
all manner of, to be read, 113 

— public teaching by, 121. 
Book-licensing, origin of, 108 — 

unjust, 110 — absurd, 113 — 
insults ingenuous minds, 115 — 
prevents freedom in teaching, 
116 — an indignity to dead au- 
thors, 117 — and to the English 
nation, 118 — promotes lifeless 
uniformity, 120 — shuts out 
truth, 122 — cowardice of, 129 

— truth more likely than error 
prohibited by, 130.' 



Bradshaw, John, eulogy of, 329 - 
331. 

Bras, Lord Henry de, letter to, 
414. 

Britain, author's history of, 328. 
" character of inhabitants, 
392, 398. 

Britain, Roman Empire in ? 390. 

Brutus, Marcus, 155. 

Buonmattai, Benedetto, 321 — 
letter to, 406. 

Burden, knowledge a, 39 — of in- 
spiration to the prophets, 41 — 
of superstition, 135. 

Burning (1 Cor. vii. 9) ex- 
plained, 145. 

Cales, 222. 

Callimachus, 49. 

Cambridge, author's studies at, 
319. 

Camden, 382. 

Cameron, 168. 

Caracalla, 264. 

Cato, 415. 

Change, struggle necessary in, 38. 

Charity, law of marriage oppos- 
ing, 136 — is to decide all 
controversy, 165 — the end of 
the Gospel, 165. 

Charlemagne, 49. 

Charles I., reputed words of, in 
Eikon Basilike, 195 - 248, pas- 
sim — people virtually de- 
posed, 182 — complaint of, con- 
cerning elections, 196 — devo- 
tions of, 197 — prayers of, 197 

- 202 — hypocrisy of, 202, 208 

— calling of Parliament by, 
203 — consent of, to Strafford's 
death, 204 - 207 — attempt of, 
to arrest members of Parlia- 
ment, 207, 224 — conscience 
of, 206, 208, 229, 234 — dissim- 
ulation of, 208 — against tu- 
mults, 209 — on a triennial 
Parliament, 209 — on the 
King's negative, 212 - 217 — 
against being subject to Par- 
liament, 215 — concerning Ho- 
tham, 217 - 219 — " soul invin- 
cible " of, 220 — fear of God by, 
220 — on the civil war, 221 — 
"justice of," 221 — "peace," 



INDEX. 



475 



222 — " religion," 222 — sus- 
pected poisoner of his father 
honored, 223 — " chiefest arms " 
of, 225 — crown jewels of, 226 

— power claimed by, over 
militia, 226 — power of denial 
claimed by, 230 — argument 
of, on liturgies, 234 — hated 
and feared religious men, 239 

— policy of, against them, 239, 

240 — rebelled against law, 

241 — claimed power above 
Parliament, 242 — " vows " of, 
243 — were rejected, 246 — 
fancies vengeance on opposers, 
246 — sorrow and pity of, 248 

— slain by the English people, 
and why, 256 — slain as a pub- 
lic enemy, 261 — army and 
people demanded justice on, 
263— trial of, 286-288 — 
condemned as a tyrant, 289 — 
traitor, 290 — murderer, 291 

— author's works concerning, 
327 — charge of, to his chil- 
dren, 383 — conduct likely 
from the son of, 383. 

Charles Stuart (aft. Charles 

II.), 291. 
Charles V. (of Germany), 86. 
Chastity, excellence of, 81 - 83 

— and love, 82. 
Cheerfulness, use of, in Christian 

teaching:, 84 — fitting in Chris- 
tian duty, 149. 
Christ, kingship cannot be de- 
rived from, 381 — meekness of, 
63 — ministering, 55 — only 
head of the Church, 381 — 
praises to, 73 — prayer to, 72 

— precept of, 98 — public 
preaching of, 121 — sufferings 
and glorv of, 1 — vehemence 
of, 64 — words of, 143 — zeal 
of, 86. 

Christian thought, fit themes for, 
1 — cheerfulness, 149 — liber- 
ty, 234. 

Christianity, early, 373. 

Christina, Queen of Sweden, eu- 
logized, 313-317. 

Chroniclers, monkish, 391. 

Chrysippus, 153. 

Church, allegiance commanded 



to none by name, 249 — Christ 
only head of, 381 — civil help 
harms, 191 — early unity and 
meekness in, 5 — Ezekiel's 
temple a type of Christian, 34 

— government, reasons of to be 
examined, 29 — God's care in, 
32 — in all churches original- 
ly the same, 249 — history, use 
of learning in, 26 — harmony 
in, 124 — kings not supreme 
over, 234 — hate and fear true, 
237 — policy of, against, 239 — 
progress of corruption in, 2 — 
reformation in, 4 — secular au- 
thcritv not necessary to, 6 — 
spousals of, with Christ, 163 — 
supplications for, 20 — wealth 
in, 365. 

Churchman, true office of, 11 — 
not to encroach on temporal 
authority, 12. 

Cicero, cited or named, 105, 154, 
161, 267, 410. 

Citizens of England, addressed, 
347-354. 

Claudius, Appius, 308. 

Clergy, prelatical insolence over, 
6 — evils of hireling, 373. 

Comnenus, Audronicus. 197. 

Commons (House of), have juris- 
diction over a king. 281. 

Commonwealth defined, 228 — 
enjoined by our Saviour, 379 — 
like a great Christian person- 
age, 11 — tower of, 377 — pro- 
tects liberty of conscience, 
382 — fosters merit, 384 — 
goodly vessel of, 17 — schools 
and academies encouraged by, 
386 — trade flourishes in, 387 

— folly of renouncing for 
kingship, 387 — counties to be 
a subordinate, 384 — stages of 
corruption in, 165. 

Commotions, sectaries active in, 
130 — noble men raised up in, 
130. 

Communion, table of, 6. 

Corruption, progress of, in the 
Church, 2 — stages of, in com- 
monwealth, 165 — in officers of 
state, 361. 

Conformity, outward, 2. 



476 



INDEX. 



Conscience, forcers of, 359 — 
God's seoretary, 54 — liberty 
of, 356 — protected by a com- 
monwealth, 382 — rights of, in 
interpreting scripture, 357. 

Constantine, 7, 365. 

Controversial works, profit of 
reading, 405. 

Corporal punishment not proper 
in religion, 403. 

Council of Trent, 109. 

County a subordinate common- 
wealth, 384 — controversy in, 
how settled, 385. 

Craft in treaties, 241. 

Crassus, 275. 

Crescentius, 353. 

Cromwell, Oliver, eulogium to, 
333 - 347 — birth and early life 
of, 333 — in Parliament, 333 — 
military exploits of, 333, 334 — 
memorable actions of, 336 — 
dissolves Parliament, 337 — 
Protectorate of, 338 — address 
to, 338 — warned against tyr- 
anny, 340 — is counselled to 
employ wise men in council, 
342 — to leave the Church 
free, 345 — to foster education, 

346 — to permit free discus- 
sion, 346 — to hear any truth, 

347 — Protector, letters of 
state from, to Duke of Savoy, 
420 — to United Provinces, 
422, 425. 

Crown jewels of Charles I., 226. 

Curiosity, in vain things, 135. 

Custom, influence of, 130 — asso- 
ciated with error, 132 — tyr- 
anny of, 170. 

Cyrus, 13, 30, 334. 

Dandolo, Doge of Venice, 308. 

Daniel, 110. 

Dante referred to, 80, 408. 

Darius, 249. 

David, 90, 105, 161, 176, 179, 

205, 217, 245. 
Dawn of light in British history, 

389. 
Decency, so called, in worship, 4. 
Decrees of God respecting free 

agents not absolute, examined 

by laws of reason, 440 — con- 



tingent, maintained, 440 — 
framed to permit human free- 
dom, 443 — not the cause of 
divine foreknowledge, 447. 

Defence (Milton's) of the people 
of England, referred to, 297, 
301, 309, 313, 329. 

Definition, 165. 

Delphi, oracle of, 310. 

Demophobn, 177. 

Deodati, John, 323. 

Desborough, 344. 

Dillon, " a traitor," 291. 

Dion, 177. 

Discipline, nurse of truth, 26 — 
importance of, 30 — the image 
of virtue, 31 — in the Church 
divinely ordained, 31 — gifts 
required in framing. 32 — re- 
lation of to preaching, 32 — 
set forth by Paul, 34. 

Disloyalty, divine punishment 
of, 23. 

Dissent not to be persecuted, 
402. 

Divines, time-serving, 186, 395 — 
subprelatical faction of, 188 — 
judgment of Protestant, on ty- 
rannicide, 188. 

Divorce, when permissible, 142 

— better than hate, 147 — al- 
lowance of, approves, 155 — 
for frigidity, 163 — Moses lim- 
its not, 167 — author's works 
on, noticed, 325. 

Doctrine, nurse of truth, 26 — 
use of, against ignorance, 58 

— primitive purity in, 40 — 
author's studies in Christian, 
430-432. 

Dramatic constitutions, 49. 
Dudley, Duke, 223. 

Ecclesiasticus, 150. 

Education, 100- 106— bad sys- 
tems of, 101 — evil results in, 
102 — better way of, 103 — a 
complete, 104 — author's work 
on, noticed, 326. 

Edward VI. 223. 

" St., law of, cited, 287. 

Ehud, 181. 

Eikonoklastes mentioned, 329. 

Elegance in language. 407. 



INDEX. 



±11 



Eli, 156. 

Elisha, 448. 

Elijah, 87, 201. 

Elizabeth, Queen, 382. 

Eloquence, daughter of virtue, 
28 — best, nearest nature, 77 — 
the hearty love of truth, 98 — 
flourishes with great acts, 389 
— just conquerors honor, 390 — 
declines with civil virtue, 390. 

Enemies, force to be used against 
domestic, 274. 

England and Scotland, natives 
in, addressed, 15 — liberty of 
speech lost in, 66 — reforms in, 
70 — God's favor to, 70 — signs 
of new reformation in, 124. 

England, citizens of, addressed, 
347-354. 

English army, 263, 283, 331- 
333, 335. 

English language, why chosen by 
the author, 48. 

English nation, indignity of li- 
censing to, 118 — blessings of 
God to, recounted, 294. 

English people, appeal to, 293 — 
fortitude and sobriety of, 299. 

Englishmen, 124. 

Epaminondas, 161, 334. 

Ephori, 277, 278. 

Epic poems, 48. 

Episcopacy, permitted in God'a 
wrath, 34 — source of schism, 
34 — arguments for, examined, 
69. 

Episcopal war of Charles I., 323. 

Error, united with custom, 133. 

Esdras, 249. 

Eternal generation, doctrine of, 
examined, 451. 

Euripides, 49, 177, 277, 298, 312. 

Eusebius, 35. 

Evangelists, 105. 

Evil mingled with good, 111 — 
knowledge of, joined with that 
of good, 112 — restraint of, not 
always wise, 114. 

Evil doers harm themselves 
most, 232. 

Excommunication touches not 
property nor life, 18 — true 
method and purpose of, 19, 



Exercise, faith and knowledge 

grow by, 119. 
Expurging Indexes, 66, 109. 
Extremes, sudden, 17. 
Ezekiel, cited, 403 — temple of, 

34— visions of, 85, 132. 

Fabius, 410 — Maximus, 156. 

Faesolse, 409. 

Fairfax, eulogy of, 335. 

Falsehood colored, like truth, by 
feelings, 56. 

Fathers, the Church, 9, 26, 27, 
54. 

Fear in worship, 3 — in religion 
towards magistrates, 360. 

Feelings color truth, 55. 

Fines for heresy not permissible, 
403. 

Flanders, les Gueux in, 368. 

Fleetwood, 343. 

Florence, author's visit to, 320, 
322. 

Force, lawful against domestic 
enemies, 274 — and hire, harm 
of, to the Church, 355 — 
against conscience, wrong, 359. 

Forefathers, deeds of, against 
tyranny, 211. 

Formality in worship, 3. 

Free agents, acts of, not decreed 
absolutely, 438. 

Free people, hereditary right 
over, 379. 

Free writing, permission of, good 
for the state, 67. 

Freedom, truly loved only by 
good men, 170, — nature of, 
353 — in what consisting. 381 
— of speech in things of relig- 
ion, 405. 

French people, 302. 

Frigidity, divorce for, 163. 

Fulvius'and Rupilius, 275. 

Gehazi's leprosy, 19. 
Generation of the Son of God by 

the Father, 450 - 545. 
Genesis, a prologue to laws of 

Moses, 29. 
Geneva, author's visit to, 323. 
Germans, 301. 
Germanv, 387. 
Gluttony, 114. 



478 



INDEX. 



God, appealed to, 308, 309 — 
cares for civil affairs, 268 — 
check of, on custom and error, 
133 — popular impulses from, 
257 — knowledge of, 100 — not 
confined to place or mode, 131 
recreations of, 162 — ways of, 
equal, 158 — will prepare and 
send ministers, 75 — wisdom 
of, 162 — decrees of, see De- 
crees — the Father, generation 
of the Son by, 450 — not eter- 
nal, 451 — not necessary, 454 

— in time, 455 — the only true 
God, 455 — author of regenera- 
tion, 459 — foreknowledge of, 
444 — not caused by decrees, 
447 — does not impose necessi- 
ty, 448 — will of, the First 
Cause, 447. 

Godfrey (of Boulogne), 49. 

Good and evil mingled, 111 — 
known by evil, 112 — men only 
love freedom, 170 — misjudged 
by the bad, 171. 

Gospel, civil interference abol- 
ishes, 361 — great command 
of, 185 — mystery of, 55 — 
preachers of, 367. 

Government, talents needed in, 
9 — false teachings in, 10 — 
origin and object of, 173 — re- 
quires knowledge of the limits 
of liberty, 135 — form of, left 
to each nation, 267 — kingly, 
174 — of the Church, 29, 32 

— of all churches originally 
the same, 249. 

Grace, the door of, 38. 
Grammatical labors, value of, 

406. 
Gravity in Christian teaching, 

84. 
Great, men and things truly, 313. 
Greece, literature of, 411. 
Greek poets, quoted by Paul, 

110. 
Greeks, 180, 298. 
Grotius, 320. 
" Gueux, les," 368. 
Guion, 112. 

Happiness of a nation, in what 
consisting, 243. 



Harmony in the Church, 124. 

Hate, enters in ill-assorted mar- 
riages, 147 — divorce better 
than, 147 — natural, efficacy 
of, 150 — the mightiest disor- 
der, 159 — marriage cannot 
bind, 160. 

Hawley, 344. 

Hazael, 448. 

Heathen, testimony to God's jus- 
tice, 153 — views of divine 
punishment, 154 — prayers 
used by Charles I., 199. 

Hebraisms in the New Testa- 
ment, 169. 

Hebrews, poets among, 48. 

Helps to understand Scripture, 
371. 

Hercules, 180. 

Heresy, increased by Episcopacy, 
34. 

Heretic in the truth, described, 
119 — who is the, 357. 

Heresy in New Testament times, 
436. 

Hezekiah, 161, 245, 438. 

Hire, and force, in the Church, 
355 — dangerous to the Church, 
362 — not in itself unlawful, 
364 — excessive evil of, 365. 

Hirelings, 364, 366— Judas the 
first, 365 — how diminished, 
372. 

Historical composition, 415. 

Holstein, Luke, 321. 

Homer cited or noticed, 48, 81, 
106, 150, 153, 310. 

Horace cited, 88, 166. 

Hotham cited, 217. 

Huss, 108, 367. 

Ignatius, fragmentary writings 
of, 26. 

Ignorance, how cured by the 
minister, 58. 

Ilissus, 408. 

Immanuel, Duke of Savoy, letter 
to, 420 — on the edict of, 422. 

Independents, consistency of, 
285 — words of Salmasius con- 
cerning, 285 — growth of, 327. 

Indexes, Expurgatorious, 66, 109. 

Indifference, 93. 

Inquisition, Spanish, 109. 



INDEX. 



479 



Inspiration the burden of the 

prophets, 41. 
Invocation, to the Divine Trinity, 

20— to Christ, 72 — to God, 

258. 
Io, 10. 

Ireland, 336. 
Isaac, 308. 
Isis, 123. 

Israelites, 13, 34, 238, 274, 293. 
Italian language, 409. 
Italians, 302. 
Italy, 35, 48 — academies in, 46 

— commonwealths of, 387. 
Itinerary preaching, 387. 

Jacob, 243, 308. 

James L, 224. 

James, temple of, 129. 

Jeremiah, 41, 42. 

Jerome, 141. 

Jesuits, English, 322. 

Jews, laws of, 29 — at Christ's 
time, 144 — slew tyrants, 181. 

Job, Book of, 48. 

John, apocalypse of, cited or no- 
ticed, 31, 41, 49, 85, 253. 

Jonah, 439. 

Josephus cited, 29, 249. 

Josiah, 439. 

Judas, 365. 

Judgment of nations, 23. 

Julian the Apostate, 110. 

Juno, 10, 109. 

Justice may not compromise with 
sin, 157 — the sword of God, 
172 — to be executed on the 
tyrant, 172 — strongest of all 
things, 250. 

Justinian, Code of, 177. 

King, accountable to law, 175 

— blessings expected from re- 
jecting, 184 — checks to the 
power of, 175 — Commons have 
jurisdiction over, 282 — differ- 
ent from a tyrant, 302 — ex- 
cels not other men by nature, 
232 — hates and fears true 
Church, 237 — law superior to, 
277 — likened to Samson, 61 — 
may not do as he pleases, 264, 
303 — negative of, 212 — not 
supreme over the Church, 234 



— Parliament may limit, 231 

— People and Senate superior 
to, 279 — policy of, against the 
Church, 239 — relations of, to 
Parliament, 212 - 216, 225 - 229 

— to subject, 181 — tyrants 
often subvert, 303 — unlimited 
power of, injurious, 268. 

Kingship, many wish return to, 
376 — evils of returning to, 
377-379 — not derived from 
Christ, 381 — does not protect 
liberty of conscience, 382. 

Knighthood, English, 15 — oath 
of, 81. 

Knowledge a burden, 39 — of re- 
ligion easy, 367. 

Knox, John, 117. 

Lacedaemonians, kingdom of, 

279. 
Laertius, 105. 

Laity, prelatical insolence over, 6. 
Lambert, 344. 
Language, elegance in, 407 — 

Tuscan, 408 — Italian, 409 — 

Latin, 410. 
Languages, use of learning, 100 

— mistakes in teaching, 101 

— best mode of learning, 
102. 

Latin, religious controversies to 
be permitted in, 405 — author's 
use of, 410. 

Laughter, use of, in refuting er- 
ror, 65, 87. 

Laurence, 344. 

Law, cannot limit sin, 167 — per- 
mit sin, 168 — remit its vigor, 
151, 157 — dissolved by Christ 
into charity, 162 — faithfulness 
of, 157 — God's revealed will, 
152 — may not covenant with 
sin, 151, 157 — some have best 
kept by transgression, 161 — 
superior to king, 216, 266. 

Lawgivers, eminent, claimed Di- 
vine inspiration, 32. 

Laws, a check on authority, 174 

— in the hands of Parliament, 
227 — the locks of Samson, 61 

— of God and of Nature agree, 
268 — reasons of, to be pub- 
lished with them, 28 — set 



480 



INDEX. 



above magistrates, 175 — supe- 
rior to kings, 216, 266. 

Learning, revival of, in Beforma- 
tion, 5 — end and method of, 
100. 

Legislative power wisely sepa- 
rated from executive, 214. 

Leo X., 108. 

Liberty, Christian, depends not 
on a king, 234 — civil limits of, 
107 — double edge of, 398 — 
few truly desire, 265 — harm- 
ful to bad men, 398 — in Swit- 
zerland, 418 — national, 12 — 
of man independent of Divine 
necessity, 444 — of speaking 
lost in England, 66 — religion 
and, knit together, 90 — re- 
stored to English nation, 298 — 
those unworthy of, ungrateful, 
352 — worth of, 67. 

License, allowed by tyrants, 170. 

Licentiousness, author's denial 
of, 78-83. 

Liturgies, 3, 197, 234, 237. 

Logic and metaphysics, teaching 
of, 102. 

London, references to, 124, 284, 
318, 411. 

Loneliness of man, God's pro- 
vision against, 163 — marriage 
a help against, 143. 

Love, and Anteros, 148 — hidden 
efficacy of, 150 — in marriage 
to be mutual, 149 — of God 
and man a motive, 100 — ori- 
gin of fall of Plato, account 
of Moses, 146 — true, and 
chastity, 82. 

Low Countries, 387. 

Luther, 86, 367. 

Luxury, Lydians enslaved by, 
13. 

Lycurgus, 32, 277, 278. 

Lydians, 13. 

Lyons, poor men of, 368. 

Lyric poesy, 49. 

Magistracy, a divine ordinance, 

267 — form of, discretionary, 

267. 
Magistrate, duty of, 17 — should 

not compel the maintenance 

of ministers, 372. 



Magna Charta, 227. 

Magus, Simon, 19, 365. 

Malice, treatment of, by the min- 
ister, 58. 

Manilius, 153. 

Marginal stuffings, men learned 
in, 53. 

Mariso, John Baptiste, 321. 

Marriage, a covenant, 148 — de- 
signed for man's solace, 140 — 
evils in, not chargeable on God, 
158 — hate in, 147 — a help 
against loneliness, 143 — law 
of, against charity, 136 — make 
it miserable, 140 — needs to be 
new examined, 137 — love in, 
must be mutual, 149 — once 
in disgrace, afterward held a 
sacrament, 141 — the remedy 
of solitude, 146 — when not 
true, 145. 

Marston Moor, battle of, 344. 

Martin V., 108. 

Martyrs, 5 — deriding persecu- 
tors, 87. 

Medea, 156. 

Meekness, spirit of, necessary to 
receive instruction, 77. 

Men, naturally born free, 173 — 
leagues of, to prevent injury, 
173 — made in God's image 
and free, 266. 

Metellus Csecilius, 308. 

Micaiah, 130. 

Militia, power over, 226. 

Ministers, aid afforded by, to 
magistrates, 17 — duty of, 16 
— early, distinguished by 
sanctity, 373 — evils of wealth 
to, 98 — God's inward calling 
makes, 75 — God will raise up, 
75 — in the cure of souls, 57 — 
evils to be met by, 58 — reme- 
dies of, 59, 60 — maintenance 
of, 363, 367 — people competent 
to judge of, 96-98 — recom- 
pense of, 366. 

Minos, 32. 

" Mirror, The," an old book re- 
ferred to, 280. 

Miseries of men chargeable on 
themselves, 139. 

Monarchy, absolute, 279 — why 
defended by good men, 274. 



INDEX. 



481 



Monkish chroniclers, 48, 391. 

Montacute, 344. 

Montfort, Simon de, 193. 

Moms, (Alex. More, supposed 
author of the anonymous libel,) 
322, 329. 

Moses, cited or referred to, 29, 
32, 110, 126, 139, 146, 438 — 
law of, 29, 138, 139, 141, 142, 
145, 167, 176, 177, 178, 326. 

Music, use of, in education, 105 

— power of, 106. 

Naples, author's visit to, 321. 

Nation, a noble and puissant, 
128 — triumphs most honora- 
ble to a, 349 — happiness of, 
in what consisting, 243. 

Nations, judgment of, 23 — un- 
worthy of liberty, conduct of, 
352. 

Nature imposes not kings, 265 

— zodiac of, 169. 
Necessity, Divine, in relation to 

free agencv, 441 - 444. 
Nero, 224, 290. 
New Jerusalem, 31, 69. 
New Testament, idiom of the, 

169. 
Nicetas, 197. 
Nimrod, 253. 
Nornentanus, 353. 
Numa, 32. 

Ocnus, 160. 

Odes and hymns, 49. 

CEdipus, 41". 

Opinions, numerous, in active 
times, 125. 

Opponent, author's, ridiculed, 
260, 276, 306. 

Opportunity in religion, 38. 

Opposition to truth may be ex- 
pected, 143. 

Oratory, a vehement vein in, 83. 

Ordination, right of, 5 — a mere 
symbol, 74. 

Origen, 49. 

Ormond, James, Earl of, 190. 

Orpheus, 104, 266. 

Osiris, 122. 

Overton, 344. 

Palmerin, 203. 

21 



Pandora, 153. 

Papists, 190, 358, 359. 

Pareus, 49. 

Parliament, ancient laws con- 
cerning, 210 — legislative pow- 
er of, 227, 242 —may limit 
kingly power, 231 — peers of 
king in, 280 — relations of , to 
king, 212-216, 225-229, 230 
-231— triennial bill for, 209 

— Long, praise of, 15, 88 — 
time of, the jubilee of the 
state, 66 — ancestry of, 89 — 
education of, 90 — labors of, 
for civil liberty, 91 — against 
ecclesiastical tyranny, 92 — 
gave liberty to the people, 92, 
93 — overawed king's armies, 

93 — permanent sitting of, 93, 

94 — affability of, 94 — God 
honors, 95 — action of, without 
precedent, justified, 186 — has 
not countenanced popery, 190 

— defended true religion, 190 

— why called by Charles I., 
203 —did not repent judgment 
against Strafford, 207 — at- 
tempt to arrest members of, 
207, 224 — king's trial by, 288 

— vigor of, 323 — wisdom 
wanting in, 392 — evil acts of, 
393, 394 — state of religion un- 
der, 395 — corrupted the peo- 
ple, 397. 

Parliaments, Cromwell dissolves, 

337, 338. 
" Parricide " of Charles I., 259. 
Patriotism, rewards of, 23. 
Patriots, training of children for, 

104. 
Paul, cited or mentioned, 25, 34, 

36, 38, 83, 110, 134. 145, 147, 

190, 197, 199,204,267,373,404, 

437, 440. 
Peace, restored, dangers of, 348 

— in Switzerland, 419. 

Peers of the King in Parliament, 
280. 

People, civil idolatry by, 193 — 
competent to judge of a minis- 
ter, 96 - 98 — English, idolized 
Charles I., 193 — may choose 
or reject a king, 178 — may 
slay a tyrant, 180 — power 



482 



INDEX. 



of, to change their government, 
184. 

Peripatetics, 156. 

Perkin Warbeck, 260. 

Persuasion to obedience, 28. 

Petition, nature and right of, 
230, 231. 

Petrarch, referred to, 80, 408. 

Pharaoh, 238. 

Philaras, Leonard, letter to, 
411. 

Philistine forges, 119. 

Philo Judseus, 151. 

Philosophy, author's studies in, 
82. 

Phineas, 412. 

Pickering, 344. 

Piedmont, sufferings of Protes- 
tants in, 420, 427. 

Piety, necessary to a nation, 
348. 

Pilate, 152, 156. 

Pindar, 49, 266. 

Pius IV., 239. 

Plantagenet, Thomas, 193. 

Plato cited, 28, 58, 82, 105, 113, 
146, 153, 155, 266, 277, 278, 
407. 

Pliny, 97. 

Plutarch, 105. 

Poetasters, libidinous and igno- 
rant, 51. 

Poetic abilities the gift of God, 
50 — use and abuse of, 50, 
51. 

Poets, smooth elegiac, 79 — chief 
glory of, 79 — ascribe pious 
words to. tyrants, 198. 

Policy, governmental, false 
teaching and corruption in, 9, 
10 — wisest, 349. 

Politician, the modern, 10. 

Pompey, 155, 276. 

Pope's claim of political power, 
402. 

Popery, how to remove and hin- 
der, 403 — idolatry of, to be re- 
moved, 404 — not tolerable, 
402 — Parliament has not 
countenanced, 190 — twofold 
power of, 402. 

Popilius, 158. 

Praise to God, 14, 21, 70 — to 
Christ, 72. 



Prayer, to Christ, 73, 74 — 
Lord's, 236 — set forms of, 234 

— tyranny in prescribing, 235 

— voluntary, 234 - 237. 
Preaching, itinerary, 369 - 372 — 

public, 32 —of Christ, 121. 

Predestination, 440. 

Prelates, insolence and usurpa- 
tion of, 6 — abuse Sabbath, 13 

— natter kings, 61 — acts of 
Parliament against, 92 — 
beasts of Amalec, 220. 

Prelatical Episcopacy, author's 
work on, 327. 

Prelaty, does not prevent schism, 
35 — palsy of, 36 — wholly 
evil, 62 — defenders of, to be 
rebuked sharply, 63. 

Presbyterian Keformation, 382. 

Presbyterians, correspond with 
Eoyalists, 284 — jealous of In- 
dependents, 327. 

Presbyters in Scotland, 374. 

Presbytery, Charles I. opposed, 
383. 

Priests, emulous of kingly pow- 
er, 14 — not to minister, sor- 
rowing, 149. 

Princes disguised, 66. 

Proairesis, 105. 

Prometheus, 271. 

Prophets, inspiration a burden 
to, 41 — zeal of ancient, 86. 

Protestants, principles of, 356, 
357, 381 — tyranny and incon- 
sistency in, 359 — war among, 
deprecated, 426, 427. 

Proverbs, 77. 

Providence, unsearchable mys- 
teries of, 247. 

Public faith, violated by Parlia- 
ment, 394 — preaching, 32 — 
of Christ, 121 — teaching by 
books, 121. 

Punic War, 156. 

Pure life necessary to a great 
poet, 80. 

Puritans, 286. 

Psyche, 111. 

Pyrrhus, 125, 308. 

Queen Elizabeth, 382. 
Queen of Sweden, 313. 
Queen Truth, 329. 



INDEX. 



483 



Keason of Church Government, 
author's, referred to, 324. 

Recreations should be cared for 
by magistrates, 51 — necessa- 
ry, 162 — how best attained, 
163 — of God, 162. 

Reformation, 4, 69 — errors in, 
soon amended, 38 — morning 
beam of, 71 — in England, 70 

— author's work on, 324. 
Regal, different from paternal 

power, 260. 
Regeneration, 458 - 465 — God 
the author of, 458 — agents of, 
459, 460 — object of, 460, 461 

— in God's image, 460 — ex- 
ternal cause of, 464. 

Regicides, wisdom of, 263. 

Rehoboam, 179. 

Relations of King and Parlia- 
ment, 212-216, 225 - 229, 230, 
231 — of king and subject, 
181. 

Religion and liberty knit togeth- 
er, 90 — author's training in 
Christian, 82 — by proxy de- 
scribed, 19, 20 — knowledge of 
Christian, easy, 367 — matters 
of, 355 — opportunity in, 38 — 
permits vehement oratory, 84 

— real subverters of, 189 — 
rule of, given in Scripture, 
401. 

Remonstrances to Charles I., 

216. 
Rentius (Rienzi), Nicholas, 353. 
Repentance the aim of discipline, 

60. 
Reproof, 58. 
Restraint, requires knowledge of 

limits of liberty, 135. 
Revolution, English, sobriety of, 

299 
Rhe\ Isle of, 222. 
Richard II., 211 — III., 198. 
Riches, evil of, to ministers, 98. 
Rienzi (Rentius), Tribune, 353 — 
Robert de Vere, 211 — Rochelle, 

222. 
Romances, author's reading of, 

81 — several mentioned, 202. 
Romans, 48, 125, 127, 180, 275, 

298, 353. 
Roman slaves, 66. 



Rome, 128, 321, 322, 408. 
Rubbish from work, 38. 
Rupert (Prince), 244. 

Sabbath, abuse of, 13. 

Salamis, sea fight of, 156. 

Sallust, 414-416. 

Salmasius, cited. 259, 265, 269, 
270, 271, 272, 273, 276, 277, 283, 
285, 291 — Latin of, ridiculed, 
260 — arguments of, from law 
of nations, 266 — from nature, 
269 — greater arguments of, 
276 — on the Independents, 
285, 286 — on the King's trial, 
286 — work of, dictated by 
Charles Stuart, 291 — author's 
reply to, mentioned, 329 — 
success of, replv to, 297 — cha- 
grin of, at defeat, 297, 313 — 
disfavor of, with the Queen of 
Sweden, 314. 

Samson, King likened to, 61. 

Samuel, 179. 

Sanctification, effected by the 
Father and by the Son, '463 - 
465 — external cause of, 464 
— attributed to faith, 465. 

Saul, 217, 220, 233. 

Saviour, our, 1, 84, 135, 137, 206, 
308, 379. 

Savoy, sufferings of Protestants 
in, 420, 422, 427. 

Schism, not prevented by pre- 
laty, 35 — terrors of, 125, 126. 

Schools in a Commonwealth, 
386. 

Scipio, 30, 70, 335. 

Scotch war, 344. 

Scotland, nobles and people of, 
commended, 15 — apostro- 
phized, 15, 16 — war with, 
283, 323, 336, 344 — danger of 
losing, 378. 

Scots, 283, 290, 323, 336. 

Scriptures, alleged difficulty of, 
7 — authority of, superior to 
that of the Church, 357 — dis- 
cussions on, allowable, 358 — 
freedom of conscience in in- 
terpreting, 358 — ground of 
faith, 356 — helps to under- 
standing of, 371 — measure of 
truth, 68 — plainness of, 8 — 



484 



INDEX. 



studies of youth in, 105 — 
sufficiency of, 25. 

Scudamore, Thomas, 320. 

Sechemites, 15. 

Sectaries, busy in times of com- 
motion, 130 — men of true re- 
ligion called, 194. 

Sects, try faith, 36 — hinder not 
reformation, 37 — groundless 
fear of, 125 - 129. 

Seducement, how hindered, 360. 

Selden, Hebrew Wife by, 326. 

Self-preservation, 227. 

Self-reverence, restraining pow- 
er of, 56 — author's, 80. 

Seneca, 88, 180. 

Service, God's honor on, 55. 

Severity, allowable in defending 
sound doctrine, 64. 

Shakespeare, quoted, 198. 

Sidney's (Sir Philip), Arcadia, 
199. 

Simon de Montfort, 193. 

Simon Magus, 19, 365. 

Simplicitv in God's great works, 
55. 

Sin, always exists in excess, 167 
— an outlaw, 152 — expelled 
only with virtue, 115 — not re- 
moved with its occasion, 114 — 
not to be limited by law, 166 - 
169 — punished with sin, 154. 

Slavery a sacrilege, 266. 

Smectymnuus, author's Apology 
for, noticed, 325. 

Societies, civil, object of, 260. 

Socrates, 146. 

Solomon, 37, 52, 64, 87, 105, 163. 

Solon, 161. 

Song of Solomon, a pastoral dra- 
ma, 49 — a figure of Christ and 
the Church, 163. 

Songs in the Law and Prophets, 
49. 

Son of God, eternal generation 
of, considered, 450 - 454 — not 
coessential with the Father, 
454 — testifies to the Father's 
unity, 455 — receives name 
and' attributes from the Fa- 
ther, 457 — equality of, with 
God, no robbery, 457 — faith 
of saints respecting, 458. 

Sophocles, 41, 49. 



Soul, ministers care of the, 57 - 
61 — distemper of, 59. 

Spain, 35 — king of, alluded to, 
22, 428. 

Spaniards, 302, 426, 427, 428. 

Spanish Armada, 22 — inquisi- 
tion, 109. 

Spenser, 112. 

Sphinx, 215. 

Sports and pastimes, fit subjects 
of legislation, 51. 

Statesmen, wise, worthy of high- 
est praise, 406. 

Stoics, 153. 

Stories of the Church, use of, 
26. 

Strafford (Thos. Wentworth, Earl 
of), consent of Charles I. to his 
death, 204. 

Strickland, 344. 

Subjects, relations of, to king, 
181. 

Success, confirms a good cause, 
254. 

Sun ripens wits, 399. 

Superstition, guardian of tyran- 
ny, 92 — burden of, 135 — of 
the Papist, 136 — of imagina- 
ry sins, 136, 159. 

Sweden, queen of, eulogized, 313 
- 317 — troubles of United 
Provinces with, 425. 

Switzerland, king of, 428 — let- 
ters to Senators of, 417 — can- 
tons of, 427. 

Sydenham, 344. 

Sydney, 344. 

Tacitus, 414. 

Tasso, 48, 321. 

Teachers, Christian, differ in na- 
ture, 84. 

Teaching, errors in, 101, 102 — 
public, by books, 121. 

Temperance, Spenser's allegorv 
of, 112. 

Temple, measured by God, 33 — 
of Ezekiel a type of the Chris- 
tian Church, 34 — rubbish in 
building, 126 —of Janus, 129. 

Tenure of kings and magistrates, 
author's reference to, 327. 

Tertullian, 141. 

Themistocles, 156. 



INDEX. 



485 



Theodosius the vounger 177. 

Theology, Treatises of 43^ — de- 
fects in, 432 — freedom of dis- 
cussion concerning, 434, 435. 

Theseus, 277. 

Thetis, son of, 310. 

Tiber, 408. 

Time, the midwife of truth, 134 

— toiling shoulders of, 26. 
Timoleon, 307. 

Tiresias, 41, 307. 

Tithes, law of, not binding under 
the Gospel, 367. 

Toleration of religious opinions, 
484. 

Trade flourishes in common- 
wealths, 387 — interests of, in- 
ferior to religion and liberty, 
387. 

Trajan, 177. 

Travel, 414. 

Treaties, craft in, 241. 

Trent, 239 — Council of, 109. 

Trinity, invocation to, 20. 

Triptolemus, 302. 

Truth causes dissension, 40 — 
colored by feelings, 55 — 
daughter of Heaven, 26 — dan- 
ger of prohibiting by licensing, 
130 — a flowing fountain, 119 

— gains by contest, 129 — 
gem of, 67 — given freely, 40 — 
given us to gain further truth, 
123 — heretics in, 119 — im- 
possible to be soiled, 134 — 
licensing shuts out, 122 — lik- 
ened to Osiris, 122 — never 
fully attained, 123 — nurses 
of, doctrine and discipline, 26 

— opposition to, at first, 143 — 
plainness of, 8 — preciousness 
of, 40, 122— Queen Truth, 329 

— the richest merchandise, 122 

— robe of, 26 — Scripture the 
measure of, 68 — should not 
be bound, 129 — strength of, 
124, 250 — time the midwife of, 
134. 

11 Truths Manifest," author of, 
quoted, 224. 

Tuscan language, 408. 

Typhon, 122. 

Tyrannicide, right of, 180 — ex- 
amples of, 180, 181— judg- 



ment of Protestant divines con- 
cerning, 188 — resisted by Par- 
liament, 91, 92. 

Tyranny of custom and affec- 
tions, 170. 

Tyrants, abject slaves, 304 — 
bad men hate not, 171 — bish- 
ops serviceable to, 239 — de- 
fined, 179, 2S9 — deposing law- 
ful, 261, 262 — differ from 
kings, 302 — hypocrisy of, 
197 — justice to be inflicted 
on, 172 — mischiefs of, 180 — 
punishment of, agreeable to 
nature, 269. 

Ulysses, 106. 

Unchastity in man, deep dishon- 
or of, 83. 
United Provinces, 377, 385, 418 

— letter to, concerning perse- 
cutions in Savoy, 422 — con- 
cerning their trouble with 
Sweden, 425. 

Universities, English, reference 

to, 90. 
Uzziah, 233. 

Vaudois, persecutions of, 420- 

425. 
Vehemence of Christ, against 

opponents, 64 — in oratory, 83 

— examples of, 84. 
Veuice, author's visit to, 322. 
Virgil, 48. 

Virtue, the charming cup of true 
love, 82 — a cloistered, 112 — 
confirmed value of, 115 — not 
a drudgery, 158 — strengthen- 
ed by trial", 112 — to be taught, 
104. 

Warriors, just, honor eloquence, 
390. 

Wars, civil, men ready for at 
first, 171— wasting and ruin- 
ing, 389. 

Wealth, in the Church, 365. 

Whitlocke, 344. 

Wickliffe, 71, 108. 

Wisdom, call of, 52 — the Eter- 
nal, 162 — of God, 162. 

Wootton, Henry, 320. 

Worship, corruptions in, 2. 



486 



INDEX. 



Worthy deeds have worthy re- 
lators, 389. 

Xenophon, 30, 82, 105. 

Youth, corruption of, by poetas- 
ters, 51. 

Zanchius, Jerome, 308. 



Zeal for truth, 65 — fiery chariot 
of, 85 — examples of, in the 
Church, 86. 

Zealots, 195. 

Zerubbabel's opinion of truth, 
250. 

Zisca, Boemar, 308. 

Zodiac of nature, 169. 



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